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AN ENCYCLOPEDIST OF THE 
DARK AGES 

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE 



In saeculorum line doctissifnus 

(Ex concilio Toletano viii % cap. 2) 



BY 

ERNEST BREHAUT, A. M, 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
in Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1912 






m 






PREFACE 

The writer of the following pages undertook, at the sug- 
gestion of Professor James Harvey Robinson, to translate 
passages from Isidore's Etymologies which should serve 
to illustrate the intellectual condition of the dark ages. It 
soon became evident that a brief introduction to the more 
important subjects treated by Isidore would be necessary, 
in order to give the reader an idea of the development of 
these subjects at the time at which he wrote. Finally it 
seemed worth while to sum up in a general introduction the 
results of this examination of the Etymologies and of the 
collateral study of Isidore's other writings which it in- 
volved. 

For many reasons the task of translating from the Ety- 
mologies has been a difficult one. There is no modern criti- 
cal edition of the work to afford a reasonable certainty as 
to the text; the Latin, while far superior to the degenerate 
language of Gregory of Tours, is nevertheless corrupt; the 
treatment is often brief to the point of obscurity; the ter- 
minology of ancient science employed by Isidore is often 
used without a due appreciation of its meaning. How r ever, 
the greatest difficulty in translating has arisen from the 
fact that the work is chiefly a long succession of word deri- 
vations which usually defy any attempt to render them into 
English. 

In spite of these difficulties the study has been one of 
great interest. Isidore was, as Montalambert calls him, 
le dernier savant dn monde ancien, as well as the first Chris- 
tian encyclopaedist. His writings, therefore, while of no 
73 7 



8 PREFACE [8 

importance in themselves, become important as a phenome- 
non in the history of European thought His resort to 
ancient science instead of to philosophy or to poetry is 
suggestive, as is also the wide variety of his ' sciences ' 
and the attenuated condition in which they appear. Of 
especial interest is Isidore's state of mind, which in many 
ways is the reverse of that of the modern thinker. 

It is perhaps worth while to remark that the writer has 
had in mind throughout the general aspects of the intel- 
lectual development of Isidore's time : he has not at- 
tempted to comment on the technical details — whether ac- 
curately given by Isidore or not — of the many ' sciences * 
that appear in the Etymologies. The student of the history 
of music, for example, or of medicine as a technical sub- 
ject, will of course go to the sources. 

The writer is under the greatest obligation to Professors 
James Harvey Robinson and James Thomson Shotwell for 
assistance and advice, as well as for the illuminating inter- 
pretation of the medieval period given in their lectures. 
He is also indebted to Mr. Henry O. Taylor and Pro- 
fessors William A. Dunning and Munroe Smith for read- 
ing portions of the manuscript. E. B. 
Columbia University, New York, February, 1912. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 
Isidore's Life and Writings 

FAGS 

Importance of Isidore 15 

a. Place in history of thought 15 

b. Influence 17 

Historical setting. 18 

a. The Roman culture in Spain 18 

b. Assimilation of the barbarians 18 

c. Predominance of the church 19 

Life 20 

a. Family 20 

b. Leander 20 

c. Early years and education 21 

d. Facts of his life 22 

Impression made by Isidore on his contemporaries. 23 

Braulio's account 23 

Works 24 

a. Braulio's list 24 

b. Works especially important as giving Isidore's intellectual outlook.. 25 

( 1 ) Differentiae 26 

Stress on words 26 

(2) De fratura Rerum 27 

View of the physical universe 27 

General organization of subject-matter 28 

(3) Liber Numerorum 29 

Mysticism of number 29 

(4) Allegoriae 29 

(5) Stnttntiat 29 

(6) De Ordine Creaturarum 30 

9] Q 



IO • CONTENTS [ 10 



PAGE 



c. His main work — the Etymologies 30 

(1) Description 30 

(2) Contents.. . • 31 

(3) Antiquarian character 32 

(4) Leading principle of treatment — word derivation 33 

(5) Inconsistency of thought 34 

(6) Circumstances of production 34 

CHAPTER II 
Isidore's Relation to Previous Culture 

1. Dependance on the past 35 

2. Ignorance of Greek 35 

3. Relation to Latin writers 37 

a. The function of the Christian writers 37 

b. The development of the pagan thought 37 

(1) The encyclopaedias 38 

( a) Characteristics 38 

Decay of thought 38 

Epitomizing tendency 39 

Literary scholarship 39 

Scientific scholarship 40 

(b) Method of production 40 

(c) Acceptability of encyclopaedias to the church fathers . . 41 

(d) Debt of Isidore to them 41 

(2) The encyclopaedias of education 43 

4. The personal element contributed by Isidore 44 

5. Sources used by Isidore 45 

a. Confusion of the tradition 45 

b. Investigations and their results 45 

CHAPTER III 
Isidore's General View of the Universe 

1. Introductory considerations 48 

a. The difficulties in ascertaining the world-view 48 

( 1 ) Inconsistencies 48 

(2) Unexplained preconceptions , 48 

b. Conditions favoring the construction of a world-view 49 

2. The physical universe 50 

a. Form of the universe 50 

Question of the sphericity of the earth 50 

Greek cosmology versus Christian cosmology • • • • 54 

b. Size of the universe 54 

c. Constitution of matter 55 



II] CONTENTS u 

PAGB 

The four elements 55 

Properties .... 55 

Cosmological bearing 57 

Bearing on the physical constitution of man 59 

Use of the theory in medicine 59 

Phenomena of meteorology explained by the theory 60 

Seasons 61 

d. Parallelism of man and the universe 62 

3. The solidarity of the universe 63 

a. Strangeness of Isidore's thinking 63 

b. The conception of solidarity 64 

c. Number 64 

d. Allegory 65 

4. The supernatural world 67 

a. Contrast between mediaeval and modern views 68 

b. Method of apprehending the supernatural world 68 

c. Relative importance of natural and supernatural 68 

(1) In nature 68 

(2) In man 69 

(3) Asceticism 70 

d. Inhabitants of supernatural world 70 

(1) Theology 70 

(2) Angelology 70 

(3) Demonology 72 

5. View of secular learning 73 

a. Philosophy 73 

(1) Conception of philosophy 73 

(2) Attitude toward pagan philosophy 74 

b. Poetry 74 

c. Science 75 

(1) Attitude toward pagan science 75 

(2) Condition of pagan science 76 

(3) Low place accorded to science 76 

(4) Science harmonized with religious ideas 77 

(5) Perversity of pagan scientists 78 

6. View of the past 79 

a. Pagan past as a whole dropped 79 

b. Idea of the past dominated by Biblical tradition 79 

c. Importance of Hebrew history 80 



12 CONTENTS [, 2 

PAGE 

CHAPTER IV 

Isidore's Relation to Education 

i. Problem of Christian education 81 

2. Cassiodorus' solution 82 

a. Theology 83 

b. The seven liberal arts 83 

3. The educational situation in Spain 84 

4. Isidore's solution 85 

a. Attitude toward the secular subject-matter 85 

b. Comprehensive educational scheme 86 

( 1 ) First eight books of the Etymologies 86 

(2) The higher and the lower education 87 

5. Bearing of Isidore's educational scheme on the development of the uni- 

versities 88 



PART II 

THE ETYMOLOGIES 

Book I 

On Grammar 

Introduction 89 

Analysis 92 

Extracts 95 

Book II 

1. On Rhetoric (chs. 1-21) 

Introduction 105 

Analysis 107 

Extracts m 

2. On Logic (chs. 22-30) 

Introduction 113 

Analysis 115 

Extracts 115 

Book III 

1. On Arithmetic (chs. 1-9) 

Introduction 1 23 

Extracts (chs. 1-9) 125 

2. On Geometry (chs. 10-14) 

Introduction 131 

Translation (chs. 10-14) 1 32 



!3] CONTENTS 13 

PAGE 

3. On Music (chs. 15-23) 

Introduction 134 

Extracts (chs. 15-23) 136 

4. On Astronomy (chs. 24-71) 

Introduction 140 

Extracts (chs. 24-71) 142 

Book IV 

On Medicine 

Introduction 155 

Extracts 158 

Book V 

1. On Laws (chs. 1-25) 

Introduction 164 

Extracts (chs. 1-25) 166 

2. On Times (chs. 28-39) 

Introduction 1 73 

Extracts (chs. 28-39) 175 

Books VI-VIII 
[Theology] 

Introduction 183 

Analysis 184 

Extracts — Book VI. On the Books and Services of the Church. . . 185 

Extracts — Book VII. On God, the Angels and the faithful 192 

Extracts — Book VIII. On the Church and the different sects 196 

Book IX 

On Languages, Races, Empires, Warfares, Citizens, Relationships 

Introduction 207 

Analysis 208 

Extracts 208 

Book X 

Alphabetical List of Words 

Extracts 214 

Book XI 

On Man and Monsters 

Analysis 215 

Extracts 215 



I4 CONTENTS [ I4 

pag a 

Book XII 

On Animals 

Introduction 222 

Analysis 223 

Extracts 223 

Books XIII and XIV 

Introduction 233 

Analysis 233 

Extracts — Book XIII. On the Universe and its parts 234 

Extracts— Book XIV. On the Earth and its parts 243 

Book XV 

On Buildings and Fields 

Analysis 248 

Extracts 249 

Book XVI| 

On Stones and Metals 

Analysis 252 

Extracts 253 

Book XVII 

On Agriculture 

Analysis 258 

Book XVIII 

On War and Amusements 

Analysis 258 

Extracts 259 

Book XIX 

On Ships, Buildings and Garments 

Analysis 261 

Book XX 

On Provisions and Utensils Used in the House and in the Fields 
Analysis 263 

Appendix I 

Isidore's Use of the Word Yerra 264 

Appendix II 

Subdivisions of Philosophy 267 

Bibliography 270 



PART I 
INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 
Isidore's Life and Writings 

The development of European thought as we know it 
from the dawn of history down to the Dark Ages is marked 
by the successive secularization and de-secularization of 
knowledge. 1 From the beginning Greek secular science can 
be seen painfully disengaging itself from superstition. For 
some centuries it succeeded in maintaining its separate exist- 
ence and made wonderful advances; then it was obliged to 
give way before a new and stronger set of superstitions 
which may be roughly called Oriental. In the following 
centuries all those branches of thought which had separated 
themselves from superstition again returned completely to 
its cover; knowledge was completely de-secularized, the 
final influence in this process being the victory of Neo- 
platonized Christianity. 2 The sciences disappeared as liv- 
ing realities, their names and a few lifeless and scattered 

1 Cf. S. Reinach, Orpheus, p. 36. 

1 Neoplatonism, the last phase in the decline of ancient philosophy, 
profoundly influenced the Christian philosophy of patristic and medi- 
eval times, for which it prepared the way. The " first principle " of 
this philosophy was " the supra-rational, that which lies beyond reason 
amd beyond reality." It was from this source that Christian mysticism 
and contempt for empirical knowledge were largely drawn. It has 
been said that Catholic Christianity " conquered Neoplatonism after it 
had assimilated nearly everything that it possessed." Its influence was 
far greater in the eastern than in the western empire. See Harnack, 
History of Dogma, vol, i, App. 3, for a brief account of Neoplatonism. 
See also Encycl. Brit., nth edition, Art. " Neoplatonism." 

15] 15 



1 6 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x 6 

fragments being all that remained. They did not reappear 
as realities until the medieval period ended. 

This process of de-secularization was marked by two 
leading characteristics ; on the one hand, by the loss of that 
contact with physical reality through systematic observa- 
tion which alone had given life to Greek natural science, 
and on the other, by a concentration of attention upon what 
were believed to be the superior realities of the spiritual 
world, The consideration of these latter became so intense, 
so detailed and systematic, that there was little energy left 
among thinking men for anything else. 

At the point where this de-secularizing process was com- 
plete, at the opening of the seventh century, lived the Span- 
ish bishop and scholar, Isidore of Seville. His many writ- 
ings, and especially his great encyclopedia, the Etymologies, 
are among the most important sources for the history of 
intellectual culture in the early middle ages, since in them 
are gathered together and summed up all such dead rem- 
nants of secular learning as had not been absolutely re- 
jected by the superstition of his own and earlier ages; they 
furnish, so to speak, a cross-section of the debris of scien- 
tific thought at the point where it is most artificial and 
unreal. 

The resume that Isidore offers is strikingly complete. In 
this respect he surpasses all the writers of his own and im- 
mediately preceding periods, his scope being much more 
general than that of his nearest contemporaries, Boethius 
and Cassiodorus. He goes back here to the tradition of the 
encyclopedists of the Roman world, Varro, Verrius Flac- 
cus, Pliny, and Suetonius, by the last of whom he is believed 
to have been especially influenced. Few writers of any 
period cover the intellectual interests of their time so com- 
pletely. To understand Isidore's mental world is nearly 
to reach the limits of the knowledge of his time. 1 

1 Nihil enim Isidorus intentatum reliquit : facilitates onines attigit. 



17] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS iy 

The influence which he exerted upon the following cen- 
turies was very great. His organization of the field of 
secular science, although it amounted to no more than the 
laying out of a corpse, was that chiefly accepted throughout 
the early medieval period. The innumerable references to 
him by later writers, 1 the many remaining manuscripts, 2 
and the successive editions of his works 3 after the inven- 
tion of printing, indicate the great role he played. 4 From 
the modern point of view the real benefit he conferred upon 
succeeding centuries was that in his encyclopaedic writings 
he presented to the intelligent the fact that there had been 
and might be such a thing as secular science; while the 

scientias humanas divinasque pertractavit, scriptores veteres profanos et 
sacros evolvit, atque in suum usum descripsit; nee contentus etymolo- 
gico suo opere scientiarum encyclopaediam comprehendere, multa singil- 
latim in sacrarum litterarum interpretatione disseruit, multa in omni 
alio theologiae genere, multa in philosophicis atque astronomicis argu- 
mentis, multa in re litteraria, chronologica et historica. Arevalo, Pro- 
legomena in Editionem S. Isidori Hispalensis, cap. i, 3. 

1 Arevalo in his Prolegomena, cap. 33, collects passages containing 
" laudes Isidori " from medieval writers, including Fredegarius, Alcuin, 
William of Malmesbury, Vincent of Beauvais, and others. Isidore is 
cited by Petrarch in a way which shows that he was much read in his 
time. Petrarch is giving authorities for his theory of poetry, and 
after mentioning Varro and Suetonius, he says : " Then I can add a 
third name, which will probably be better known to you, Isidore." Cf. 
Robinson and Rolfe, Petrarch, p. 263. 

2 Ac portenti quidem simile est, quot mihi antiquissimi Isidori Codices 
in Urbi9 (Rome) bibliothecis sed maxime in Vaticana occurrerint. 
Arevalo, Prolegomena, cap. 1, 7. Manuscripts of Isidore's works are 
numerous also in Spain and France. 

3 The editions of Isidore's complete works are as follows: (1) that 
of de la Bigne published at Paris in 1580; (2) that of Grial, Madrid, 
1599; (3) that of du Breul, Paris, 1601 ; that of Arevalus, Rome, 1796. 
Arevalus, in the Prolegomena to his edition, enumerates ten editions of 
the Etymologies between 1477 and 1577. Others of Isidore's works ap- 
peared also in frequent separate editions. 

4 See Canal, San Isidoro, ch. 7. 



1 8 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x g 

blunders in which he was continually involved, and the 
shallowness of his thinking, offered a perpetual challenge 
to the critical power of all who read him. There was con- 
tained in his writings also, as we shall see, the embryo of 
something positive and progressive, namely, the organiza- 
tion of educational subjects that was to appear definitely in 
the medieval university and dominate education almost to 
the present day. 

For a fuller understanding of Isidore's historical setting 
some attention must be given to the country in which he 
lived. Spanish culture in the early middle ages seems to 
have been relatively superior. It is well known that the 
country had been thoroughly Romanized. How complete 
the process had been may be judged from the list of men 
of Spanish birth who had won distinction in the wider 
world of the empire; it includes the two Senecas, Lucan, 
Quintilian, Martial, Hyginus, Pomponius Mela, Columella, 
Orosius, and the two emperors, Trajan and Hadrian. In 
fact Spain had lost its individuality and had become an in- 
tegral part of the Roman world, little inferior in its culture 
even to Italy itself; and the close of Roman rule found the 
people of Spain speaking the Latin language, reading the 
Latin literature, and habituated to Roman institutions and 
modes of thought. 

Moreover the continuity of this ancient culture had been 
perhaps less rudely disturbed in Spain than elsewhere by 
the shock of the barbaric invasions. Here its geographical 
situation stood the country in good stead; the barbarian 
frontier was far away and the chances were that barbarians 
destined by fortune to enter Spain would first spend much 
time in aimless wandering within the empire, with conse- 
quent loss of numbers and some lessening of savagery. 
Such, at least, was the case with the Visigoths, who alone 



ioj ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS ig 

of the barbarians proved a permanent factor in the coun- 
try's development. They were first admitted to the empire 
in 376, and must have passed largely into the second gen- 
eration before they began to penetrate into Spain, while the 
real conquest by them did not begin until much later. " At 
the time of their appearance as a governing aristocracy in 
Spain " they " had become by long contact with the Romans 
to all intents and purposes a civilized people." x They were 
thus in a position to coalesce with the Romanized natives, 
and that this was largely brought to pass is shown by the 
conversion of the Arian Goths to orthodoxy, the removal 
of the ban of intermarriage between the two races, the use 
of Latin in all official documents, and finally by the estab- 
lishment of a common law for both peoples. The "sixty-one 
correct hexameters " of the Visigothic king Sisebutus (612- 
620) , 2 compared, for instance, with the absolutely hope- 
less attempts of Charlemagne two centuries later to learn 
the art of tracing letters, 8 show plainly that Spanish cul- 
ture had not sunk to the level of that of other parts of the 
western empire. 4 

In this cultural struggle which had taken place between 
the native population and their Visigothic rulers the con- 
test between orthodox Christianity and Arianism had been 
of prime importance, and its settlement of the utmost sig- 
nificance. Since the Spaniards upheld the orthodox faith 

1 Martin A. S. Hume, The Spanish People, p. 45. 

2 See Teuffel and Schwabe, History of Roman Literature, vol. ii, sec, 
495, 1, and Poetae Latini Minores, 5, 357. 

3 See Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni in Monumenta Germaniae Histor- 
ica, Scrip tores (Pertz ed.), vol. ii, p. 456. 

4 Another factor in the history of Spain at this time that may have 
had a slight influence on the culture of the country was the re- 
occupation of the southeastern part of the country by the Eastern 
Empire, which lasted from Justinian's time down to 628. The region 
so held included even Seville for some years. 



20 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 20 

and the Visigoths were Arians, the victory of orthodoxy 
was a victory of the native element over the newcomers. 
By this victory, therefore, a position of predominance un- 
usual for the time was given to the Spanish church organ- 
ization, and the bishops, the leaders of the church in the 
struggle, became the most powerful men in the nation. 
Their power was further strengthened by the weakening 
of the secular power when the Visigothic royal line became 
extinct and it proved impossible to secure a successor to it 
from among the families of the turbulent nobility. From 
the conversion of the Visigoths in 587 to the invasion of 
the Saracens, Spain was a country dominated by bishops. 1 

Of Isidore's life surprisingly little is known, considering 
the bulk and importance of his writings and his later fame. 2 
All that can be ascertained of his family is that it belonged 
originally to Cartagena, that it was of the orthodox re- 
ligion, and that the names of its members are Roman. 3 It 
is extremely probable that it belonged to the Hispano- 
Roman element of the population. That Isidore and his 
two brothers were bishops may be taken to show that of 
whatever origin the family was, it was one of power and 
influence. 

A word may be said of his elder brother, Leander, who 
w r as a man of perhaps greater force than Isidore himself. 

1 For the history of Spain under the Visigoths, see Lavisse et Ram- 
baud, Histoire Generate, vol. i, chap. 3 (by M. A. Berthelot), and Alta- 
mira, Historia de Espana, vol. i, c. 1. 

2 In the Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis 1 ('April 4) is the life of Isidore 
supposed to have been written by Lucas Tudensis (13th century). Are- 
valo also gives a life by Rodericus Cerratensis (also 13th century). 
These ' lives ' are full of fables and cannot be trusted as sole author- 
ities for any detail of Isidore's career. 

3 Severianus, Leander, Fulgentius, Florentina. 



2i ] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 2I 

Born at Cartagena, he became a monk, and later, bishop of 
Seville. He was the chief leader of the orthodox party in 
its struggle against " the Arian insanity ", and in the 
heat of the conflict was obliged to absent himself from 
Spain for a time. He visited Constantinople and there 
became the friend of Gregory the Great. 1 Returning to 
Spain, we find him, under king Reccared in 587, presid- 
ing over the council of Toledo, at which the Visigothic 
kingdom turned formally from Arianism. Leander was 
a man of action rather than a writer, but according to 
Isidore he engaged in controversy with the heretical 
party, " overwhelming the Arian impiety with a vehe- 
ment pen and revealing its wickedness ". He wrote also 
a little book, which we still have, " On the training of 
nuns and contempt for the world ", 2 and contributed music 
and prayers to the church service. There seems to be no 
doubt that Leander was the foremost churchman of his 
time in Spain. The prestige of his name must have made 
it easier for his successor, Isidore, to devote himself to the 
intellectual rather than to the administrative leadership of 
the church. 3 

As to Isidore's early years our only authentic informa- 
tion is that his parents died while he was still young, and 
left him in the care of Leander. It is very probable, how- 
ever, that he looked forward from the beginning to the 
clerical life which his brothers had chosen and that he 
therefore went through the educational routine as laid 
down for churchmen, which was practically the only formal 
education of the time. The best proof of this lies in 

1 Gregory's Moralia is dedicated to Leander. 

2 Sancti Leandri Hispalensis Episcopi Regula sive de institutione vir- 
ginum et contemptu mundi, in Migne, Pair. Lat., vol. 72, col. 866-898. 

3 Isidori De Viris IUustribus Liber, cap. 41. 



22 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 22 

the fact that Isidore wrote text-books of the liberal arts — 
a task that would have been well-nigh impossible to one 
who had not been drilled in them in his youth. 1 

Isidore succeeded his brother Leander in the bishopric 
of Seville probably in the year 6oo. 2 His few remaining 
letters, written in the stilted religious phraseology of the 
day, give the impression that he was much consulted on 
ecclesiastical and political matters, and that he held a posi- 
tion of primacy among the Spanish bishops; but on the 
whole they contain remarkably little that is of personal in- 
terest. From the records of the councils we learn that he 
presided at the second council of Seville in 619, and prob- 
ably also at the fourth of Toledo in 633. 3 According to a 
contemporary account written by a cleric named Redemp- 
tus, he died in April of 636. No other details of import- 
ance are known about his life. His career must have been 
a placid and uneventful one, and evidently much of his time 
was spent on his voluminous writings, which were the 
means by which he won his great ascendancy over the 
minds of his contemporaries. 4 

1 In one of Isidore's letters, addressed to Duke Claudius (Claudio 
duci), he says: "Memento communis nostri doctoris Leandri." This 
seems to point to formal instruction given by Leander, and possibly to 
the existence of a school at Seville. Migne, P. L. 83, col. 905. 

2 Isidore, in his life of Leander (De Viris Illustribus, cap. 41), says: 
"(Leander) fluorit sub Reccaredo (d. 601) . . . cujus etiam tempore 
vitae terminum clausit." Ildephonsus. in his life of Isidore (d. 636), 
says of him, "Annis fere quadraginta tenens pontificates honorem " 
(Migne, P. L. 82, col. 68). Gregory the Great has a letter to Leander 
and one to Reccared belonging to the year 598-599 (Migne, P. L. 77, 
col. 1050-1056). 

3 Gams, Kirchengeschichte von Spanien ii, 2, pp. 89, 101. 

4 Contemporary sources for Isidore's life are : the passage in the 
regula of his brother Leander (Migne, P. L. 72, col. 892) ; 'the corres- 
pondence of Isidore (Migne, P. L., 83, col. 893) ; Braulio's Introduction 
to Isidore's works (Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65) ; the life of Isidore given 



03] ISIDORE'S LIFE AXD JVRITIXGS 23 

Perhaps the most reliable account of the impression 
which Isidore made on the men of his own time is given in 
the somewhat ponderous Introduction to his works fur- 
nished by his friend and correspondent, Braulio, bishop of 
Saragossa : l 

Isidore, a man of great distinction, bishop of the church of 
Seville, successor and brother of bishop Leander, flourished 
from the time of Emperor Maurice and King Reccared. In 
him antiquity reasserted itself — or rather, our time laid in him 
a picture of the wisdom of antiquity : a man practiced in every 
form of speech, he adapted himself in the quality of his words 
to the ignorant and the learned, and was distinguished for 
unequalled eloquence when there was fit opportunity. 2 Fur- 
thermore, the intelligent reader will be able to understand easily 
from his diversified studies and the works he has completed, 
how great was his wisdom. . . . God raised him up in recent 
times after the many reverses of Spain (I suppose to revive 
the works of the ancients that we might not always grow duller 
from boorish rusticity}, and set him as a sort of support. And 
with good right do we apply to him the famous words of the 
philosopher : 3 " While we were strangers in our own city, and 
were, so to speak, sojourners who had lost our way, your books 

by Ildephonsus, bishop of Toledo (d. 667) in his continuation of Isi- 
dore's De Viris Illustribus ; and the letter of the clerk Redemptus. de- 
scribing Isidore's death (Migne, P. L, 82. col. 68). 

1 Sancti Braulionis, Caesaraugust. episcopi Praenotatio librorum Isi- 
dori, Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65. 

2 The reference in this passage is undoubtedly to the difference be- 
tween the colloquial Latin and that of the scholar. The same consid- 
eration may perhaps explain the decidedly peculiar comment of Ilde- 
phonsus on Isidore as a public speaker: "Nam tantae jucunditatis 
affluentem copiam in eloquendo promeruit, ut ubertas admiranda dicendi 
ex eo in stuporem verteret audientes. ex quo audita bis, qui audisset 
non nisi repetita saepius commendaret." Migne, P. L. 82. col. 68. 

3 This passage is found in Cicero, Academica Posteriora 1, 3. and is 
addressed to Varro. 



24 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [24 

brought us home, as it were, so that we could at last recognize 
who and where we were. You have discussed the antiquity of 
our fatherland, the orderly arrangement of chronology, the laws 
of sacrifices and of priests, the discipline of the home and the 
state, the situation of regions and places, the names, kinds, 
functions and causes of all things human and divine. 

From this characterization, as well as from the very 
brief life by another contemporary, Bishop Ildephonsus of 
Toledo, it is evident that Isidore impressed his own age 
chiefly as a writer and man of learning. Both Braulio and 
Ildephonsus give lists of his works. That of the former, 
who was Isidore's pupil and correspondent, is the fuller, 
and may be regarded as the more reliable. With its run- 
ning comment on the content of each title, it is as follows: 

I have noted the following among those works [of Isidore] 
that have come to my knowledge. He wrote the Differentiae, 
in two books, in which he subtly distinguished in meaning what 
was confused in usage; the Procemia, in one book, in which 
he stated briefly what each book of the Holy Scriptures con- 
tains; the De Ortu et Obitu Patrum, in one book, in which he 
describes with sententious brevity the deeds of the Fathers, 
their worth as well, and their death and burial; the Officio,, in 
two books, addressed to his brother Fulgentius, bishop of Astigi, 
in which he described in his own words, following the authority 
of the Fathers, why each and every thing is done in the church 
of God ; the Synonyma, in two books, in which Reason appears 
and comforts the Soul, and arouses in it the hope of obtaining 
pardon ; the De Natura Rerum, in one book, addressed to King 
Sisebut, in which he cleared up certain obscurities about the 
elements by studying the works of the church Fathers as well 
as those of the philosophers ; the De Numeris, in one book, in 
which he touched on the science of arithmetic, on account of 
the numbers found in the Scriptures ; the De Nominibus Legis 
et Evangeliorum, in one book, in which he revealed what the 



25] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 2 $ 

names of persons [in the Bible] signify mystically; the De Hae- 
resibus, in one book, in which, following the example of the 
Fathers, he collected scattered items with what brevity he 
could ; the Sententiae, in three books, which he adorned with 
passages from the MoraJia of Pope Gregory ; the Chronica, in 
one book, from the beginning of the world to his own time, 
put together with great brevity ; the Contra Judaeos, in two 
books, written at the request of his sister Florentina, a nun, 
in which he proved by evidences from the Law and the 
Prophets all that the Catholic faith maintains ; the De Viris 
Illustribas, in one book, to which we are appending this list; 
one book containing a rule for monks, which he tempered in a 
most seemly way to the usage of his country and the spirits of 
the weak; the De Origine Gothorum et Regno Suevorum et 
etiam Vandalorum Historia, in one book; the Quaestiones, in 
two books, in which the reader recognizes much material from 
the old treatments; and the Etymologiae, a vast work which 
he left unfinished, and which I have divided into twenty books, 
since he wrote it at my request. And whoever meditatively 
reads this work, which is in every way profitable for wisdom, 
will not be ignorant of human and divine matters. There is 
an exceeding elegance in his treatment of the different arts in 
this work in which he has gathered well-nigh everything that 
ought to be known. There are also many slight works, and 
inscriptions in the church of God, done by him with great 
grace. 1 

For the present purpose, which is to ascertain something 
of the intellectual outlook of the dark ages, the Etymolo- 
giae is, of course, of prime importance, since it contains 

1 Braulio's list mentions a Liber de Haeresibus which does not ap- 
pear in Arevalo's edition, and fails to mention the Liber de Ordine 
Creaturarum and the Epistolae, which are included. Ildephonsus's list 
is still less complete, leaving out the Procemic, Allegoriae, Numeri, 
OMcia, Regula, de Ordine Creaturarum, Chronicon, de Viris Illustribus, 
and the Epistolae. 



26 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 6 

in condensed form nearly everything that Isidore has 
written elsewhere. A passing attention, however, should 
be given to some of his other works, especially those of the 
more secular sort, in which his characteristic ideas are fre- 
quently developed with greater fullness than in the Ety- 
mologies itself. These include in particular the Differen- 
tiae, the De Natura Rerum, the Liber Numerorum, the Al- 
legoriae, the Sententiae, and the De Ordine Creaturarum. 

The Differentiae is in two books, the first of which treats 
of differences of words, and the second, of differences of 
things. The plan of the first book is alphabetical; words 
are ranged in pairs and distinguished from each other. 
Usually these words are synonyms, and directions are 
given for their proper use; as, populns and plebs, recens 
and novus, religio and fides; but frequently words of simi- 
lar sound are distinguished; as, vis and bis, hora and ora, 
hos and os, mar em and mare. From these latter valuable 
hints on the Latin pronunciation of the time may be ob- 
tained. 

The second book, On Differences of Things, treats in a 
brief way of such distinctions as those between deus and 
dominus; between the nativity of Christ and of man; be- 
tween angels, demons, and men; angelic and human wick- 
edness; animus and anima; the grace of God and the will 
of man; the life of action and that of contemplation. 

The introductory remarks of the Differentiae are worth 
translating, since they reveal one of the most marked char- 
acteristics of Isidore's thinking, the stress that he laid on 
words. They are as follows : 

Many of the ancients sought to define the differences of words, 
making some subtle distinction between word and word. But 
the heathen poets disregarded the proper meanings of words 
under the compulsion of metre. And so, beginning with them, 
it became the custom for writers to use words without proper 



27] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 2 y 

discrimination. But although words seem alike, still they are 
distinguished from one another by having each an origin of its 
own. 1 Cato was the first of the Latins to write on this sub- 
ject, 2 after whose example I have in part written myself of a 
very few, and have in part taken them from the books of the 
writers. 3 

The De Natura Rerum 4 is a work of great importance 
for an understanding of Isidore's view of the physical uni- 
verse. The preface is of especial interest as giving some 
hints of his methods of literary work and of his attitude 
toward pagan writers. It is addressed to Sisebutus, who 
was king of the Visigoths from 612 to 620. 5 It runs as 
follows : 

Although, as I know, you excel in talent and eloquence and in 
the varied accomplishments of literature (vario Hore lit era- 
runt), you are still anxious for greater attainment, and you 
ask me to explain to you something of the nature and causes 
of things. I, on my part, have run over the works of earlier 
writers, and am not slow to satisfy your interest and desire, 
describing in part the system of the days and months; the 
goals of the year, as well, and the changes of the seasons ; the 
nature also of the elements ; the courses of the sun and moon, 
and the significance of certain stars ; 6 the signs of the weather, 

1 Quadam propria origine. 

2 Cato did not himself write on synonyms. But Isidore probably got 
this idea from the fact that synonyms were excerpted from his writings 
by later grammarians. See Teuffel, History of Roman Literature, 
121, 6. 

3 Migne P. L. 83, col. 9. 

* There is a critical edition of De Natura Rerum by G. Becker, Ber- 
lin, 1857. 

5 Isidore describes this ruler in his History of the Goths as scientia 
Uterarum magna ex parte imbutus. See Migne, P. L. 83, col. 1073. 

6 " The higher meaning." Compare De Natura Rerum, chapter 26, 4 : 
" Per hunc Arcturum, id est, Septentrionem, Ecclesiam septenaria vir- 
tute fulgentem intelligimus. 



28 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 8 

too, and of the winds; and besides, the situation of the earth, 
and the alternate tides of the sea. And setting forth all things 
as they are written by the ancients, and especially in the works 
of catholic writers, we have described them briefly. For to 
know the nature of these things is not the wisdom of super- 
stition, if only they are considered with sound and sober learn- 
ing. Nay, if they were in every way far removed from the 
search for the truth, that wise king would by no means have 
said : " Ipse mihi dedit horum quae sunt scientiam veram ut 
sciam dispositionem coeli et virtutes elementorum, conver- 
sionum mutationes, et divisiones temporum, annorum cursus et 
stellarum dispositiones." 

Wherefore, beginning with the day, whose creation appears 
first in the order of visible things, let us expound those re- 
maining matters as to which we know that certain men of the 
heathen and of the church have opinions, setting down in some 
cases both their thoughts and words, in order that the authority 
of the very words may carry belief. 

The general organization of the matter treated by Isidore 
in the De Natura Reram is worth noticing. The preface 
quoted above indicates that the order of treatment is to 
follow the order of creation. The first topic, therefore, sug- 
gested by the creation of light, we should expect to be the 
phenomenon of light. Instead of this it is the day, in the 
calendar sense, that is described, with the natural sequel of 
the week, month, and year as collections of days. This 
section really constitutes a brief account of the elements of 
chronology. Next created are the heavens; so we have 
next astronomy, presented in a condensed form, to which 
are appended a few chapters on meteorological matters, such 
as thunder, clouds, the rainbow, wind, and finally pestilence, 
which comes in appropriately here as being " a corruption 
of the air ". The topic next in order, following the first 
chapter of Genesis, is the sea; and after that, the dry land. 



2 g] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 2 g 

It should be noted that this view of the physical universe 
according to the order of its creation, corresponds roughly 
to the analysis of matter into the four elements, fire, air, 
water, earth. As will be shown later, such correspondences 
are an important factor in the intellectual outlook of the 
time. This was the kind of mental connection with which 
people were familiar. 1 

The Liber Numerorum contains nothing arithmetical in 
the modern sense of the word, in spite of Braulio's state- 
ment that in it Isidore " touched on the science of arith- 
metic ". 2 Its fuller title is "The book of the numbers which 
occur in the Holy Scriptures ", and the body of the book 
is taken up with the mystic significance of each number 
from one to twenty, omitting seventeen, and also of twenty- 
four, thirty, forty, forty-six, fifty, and sixty. The method 
of treatment indicates an advanced mysticism of numbers. 
The book is not so much an attempt to show the signifi- 
cance of numbers occurring in particular connections, as it 
is a generalized guide to their mystical interpretation, lay- 
ing down rules to govern the interpretation of each num- 
ber, no matter where it occurs. It should be remarked that 
this was really " the science of number " of the dark ages, 
and that Braulio's use of the term " arithmetic " as apply- 
ing to it was in accordance with the best usage of the time,' 

The Allegoriae is of a character similar to the Liber 
Numerorum. It contains in brief form the principal alle- 
gories which were read into the books of the Old and the 
New Testaments, and is evidently meant to constitute a 
sort of reference book for Scriptural allegory. It possesses 
little interest. 

One of the most important of the writings of Isidore is 
the Sententiae, in three books. It is a systematic treatise 

1 See p. 64. 2 See p. 24. 3 See p. 126. 



30 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [30 

on Christian doctrine and morals, 1 and is culled chiefly 
from the M or alia of Gregory the Great. As might be 
guessed from its source, it is not a work of an enlightened 
character. However, while it is largely taken up with the 
technicalities of Christian thinking, it is frequently valu- 
able as affording fuller and more specific statements on 
some matters of interest than are found elsewhere in Isi- 
dore's works. Isidore and Gregory were in substantial 
agreement in their attitude toward life, but there are indi- 
cations that in some respects Isidore was not quite as thor- 
ough-going as his model. 2 

Among Christian scholars from the beginning there had 
been a desire to bring the traditional ideas of pagan cos- 
mography into subordination to the Christian scheme. This 
impulse was strongly, though blindly, felt by Isidore, and 
it led to his several attempts at a comprehensive account of 
the universe. Perhaps the most interesting of these is the 
De Ordine Creaturarum, which differs from the others by 
including the spiritual as well as the material universe. 
The difference did not make for rationality, and in this 
short work Isidore is seen at his scientific worst. As in 
the De Natura Rerum, the dominating factors in the de- 
scription of the physical universe are the first chapter of 
Genesis and the theory of the four elements. 

That one of Isidore's books which is of by far the great- 

1 " La Suma Teologica del Siglio VII." Menendez y Pelayo, Estudios 
de Critica Literaria, vol. i, p. 149. 

2 If Isidore had been as thorough-going as Gregory in depreciating the 
secular he certainly would not have written the Etymologies. His 
strongest anti-secular spirit is shown in the chapter (13) de libris gen- 
tilium of the Sententi-ae where, following Gregory, he denounces " all 
secular learning." It is pretty plain, however, that he is here follow- 
ing his model rather than working out his own position, and in the last 
section of the chapter he modifies what he has said by admitting that 
grammar may " avail for life if only it is applied to better uses." 



31 ] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS $j 

est importance for an understanding of the secular thought 
of the day, is the Etymologies. This is a sort of dictionary 
or encyclopedia of all knowledge. 1 As Braulio puts it, it 
contained " about all that ought to be known ", and it may 
be taken as representing the widest possible scope of secular 
knowledge that an orthodox Spaniard of the dark ages 
could allow himself. Indeed, so hospitable an attitude 
toward profane learning as Isidore displayed was unpar- 
alleled in his own period, and was never surpassed through- 
out the middle ages. 

The encyclopedic character of the Etymologies may 
best be realized by a general view of its contents. The 
titles of the twenty books into which it is divided are as 
follows : 

Etymologiarum Libri XX. 

1. de grammatica. 

2. de rhetorica et dialectica. 

3. de quattuor disciplinis mathematicis. 

4. de medicina. 

5. de legibus et temporibus. 

6. de libris et ofhciis ecclesiasticis. 

7. de Deo, angelis, et fidelium ordinibus. 

8. de ecclesia et sectis diversis. 

9. de Unguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus, affini- 
tatibus. 

10. vocum certarum alphabetum. 

n. de homine et portentis. 

12. de animalibus. 

13. de mundo et partibus. 

14. de terra et partibus. 

15. de aedificiis et agris. 

1 It is not of great length — three hundred and twenty-eight quarto 
pages in the reprint of Arevalo's edition in Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, 
with about one-fifth of each page occupied by footnotes. 



32 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [32 

16. de lapidibus et metallis. 

17. de rebus rusticis. 

18. de bello et ludis. 

19. de navibus, aedificiis et vestibus. 

20. de penu et instrumentis domesticis et rusticis. 

To the modern reader, familiar with the names of only 
the modern sciences, this series of titles, which includes an 
almost complete list of the ancient sciences, may not be 
very illuminating. For this reason it is perhaps allowable 
to translate them, where it is possible to do so, into then* 
modern equivalents. Thus we have grammar (Bk. 1), 
rhetoric and logic (Bk. 2), arithmetic, geometry, music, 
astronomy (Bk. 3), medicine (Bk. 4), law and chronology 
(Bk. 5), theology (Bks. 6-8), human anatomy and physi- 
ology (Bk. 11), zoology (Bk. 12), cosmography and physi- 
cal geography (Bks. 13-14), architecture and surveying 
(Bk. 15 and part of Bk. 19), mineralogy (Bk. 16), agri- 
culture (Bk. 17), military science (Bk. 18). This partial 
enumeration of the subjects treated in Isidore's Etymologies 
forms an imposing array, and serves to explain something 
of the importance of the work in the history of thought. 

The secret of this inclusiveness lay, however, not in an 
expanded, but in a contracted interest. Although Isidore 
is not surpassed in comprehensiveness by any one of the 
line of Roman encyclopedists who preceded him, in the 
quality of his thought and the extent of his information 
he is inferior to them all. Secular knowledge had suffered 
so much from attrition and decay that it could now be sum- 
marized in its entirety by one man. 

In spite of this it is very clear that if Isidore had treated 
these topics with any degree of reference to the actual real- 
ities of his own time, he would have left us a work of in- 
estimable value. But he did not do so; he drew, not upon 
life, but upon books for his ideas; there was no first-hand 



22] ISIDORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 33 

observation. Moreover, the books which he consulted 
were, as a rule, centuries old. 1 He tells us practically noth- 
ing concerning his own period, in which so many important 
changes were taking place. For example, there are re- 
peated and detailed references to the founding and early 
history of Rome, but no direct allusion to the political and 
social changes brought about by the disintegration of the 
Roman Empire; trifles attributed to a period thirteen 
centuries earlier seemed to interest him more than the 
mighty developments of his own epoch. Again, although 
he writes upon law, he does not appear to have heard of the 
Justinian code issued a century before; 2 and in his chro- 
nology he fails to mention the proposal for a new era in 
chronology made also a century before his time by Dion- 
ysius the Less. 3 

Throughout the Etymologies there is a leading principle 
which guides Isidore in his handling of the different sub- 
jects, namely, his attitude toward words. His idea was 
that the road to knowledge was by way of words, and 
further, that they were to be elucidated by reference to 
their origin rather than to the things they stood for. This, 
in itself, gave an antiquarian cast to his work. His con- 
fidence in words really amounted to a belief, strong though 
perhaps somewhat inarticulate, that words were transcen- 
dental entities. All he had to do, he believed, was to clear 
away the misconceptions about their meaning, and set it 
forth in its true original sense; then, of their own accord, 
they would attach themselves to the general scheme of 
truth. The task of first importance, therefore, in treating 
any subject, was to seize upon the leading terms and trace 
them back to the meanings which they had in the beginning, 
before they had been contaminated by the false usage of 
the poets and other heathen writers; thus the truth would 

1 See p. 46. - See p. 165. 3 See p. 175. 



34 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^4. 

be found. It was inevitable that, with such a preconception, 
Isidore's method in the Etymologies should be to treat each 
subject by the method of defining the terms belonging to it. 

It is plain, then, that Isidore used the dictionary method 
in the Etymologies not as a matter of convenience, but on 
philosophic grounds. His unthinking confidence in words 
was, however, ill-rewarded. It merely furnished a plan 
of treatment which evaded consecutive thought, and made 
it possible for his work to be a mass of contradictions, as 
it really is in very many points. Indeed, the task of com- 
bining in one work the ill-digested ideas of the school of 
Christian thought of his day and conflicting ideas borrowed 
from the pagans would not have been possible except to a 
writer who did not reason on his material, but was satis- 
fied, as was Isidore, to give the derivation and meaning of 
his terms in the blind trust that a harmonious whole was 
thus constituted. 

We have some information in regard to the production 
of the Etymologies. 1 It was a work undertaken at the re- 
quest of Braulio, bishop of Saragossa. and it occupied the 
last years of Isidore's life. Parts of it, however — pre- 
sumably those that could be used as text-books — were in 
circulation before his death. Braulio is our authority for 
the statement that the work as a whole was left unfinished, 
and that he himself divided it into twenty books, Isidore 
having made no division except that by subjects. As the 
brief preface, addressed to Braulio, informs us, the work 
was the product of long-continued reading, and contained 
verbatim extracts from previous writers, as well as Isi- 
dore's own comments. 

1 The circumstances under which the Etymologies was written are re- 
ferred to in Braulio's Introduction and in the life of Isidore by Ilde- 
phonsus (both in Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65-68) ; in the correspondence 
between Braulio and Isidore (Migne, P. L. 83, col. 910-914) ; and in the 
preface of the Etymologies. 



CHAPTER II 

Isidore's Relation to Previous Culture 

It has been shown that by a combination of circum- 
stances, geographical, political, and religious, Spain in Isi- 
dore's day was more fortunately situated than the re- 
mainder of western Europe. Conditions there were ripe 
for an expansion of intellectual interest beyond the narrow 
bounds to which the growth of religious prejudice and the 
uncertainties of life had reduced it. In this expansion, in 
which it was Isidore's part to lead, it was inevitable that the 
chief element should be an attempt to re-appropriate what 
had been lost in the preceding centuries, and to adapt it in 
some measure to the changed conditions of life and thought 
which had arisen. 

Isidore's relation to previous culture must, therefore, be 
examined. It appears certain, although perhaps it cannot 
be proved, that he was completely cut off from that world 
of thought, both Christian and pagan, which was expressed 
in the Greek language. The tradition of wide linguistic 
learning which was attached to him after his death and has 
not been questioned until recent times, has really nothing 
to rest upon. 1 Isidore himself does not claim a knowledge 

1 The oft-repeated expression, Latinis, Graecis et Hebraicis litteris in- 
structs, found in the Vita Sancti Isidori, deserves no attention. There 
is no historical basis for the assertion that Isidore knew Greek or 
Hebrew. In view of the time, it would be more reasonable to demand 
proof that he did know them rather than that he did not. As to his 
knowledge of Greek, see Dressel, De Isidori Originum Fontibus in 
35] 35 



36 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 3 5 

of Greek, and he seems to have relied on translations for 
whatever his works contain that is of Greek origin. 1 He 
nowhere quotes a Greek sentence, and since the Etymologies 
and others of his works are practically made up of quota- 
tions, it seems strange that he did not do so if he had re- 
sorted at all to Greek authors. The detached Greek words, 
and the Greek phrases that occur rarely in his works, are 
practically all given as derivations of Latin words; and 
when it is remembered that such detached words and 
phrases had been extremely common in Latin literature for 
centuries, it becomes plain that their use by Isidore does 
not necessarily indicate that he had a reading knowledge 
of Greek. His case is similar to that of many intelligent 
persons of the present day who are able to trace words to 
Latin and Greek roots without being able to read these lan- 
guages. 2 

Rivista di Filologia, vol. iii (1874-75), P- 216. The legend of Isidore's 
wide linguistic learning persists, however, even in the nth edition of 
the Encyclopedia Britannica. See Art. " Encyclopedia." 

1 Cf. Etym., 2, 2, 1 ; 2, 25. 1 and 9; 3, 2. See pp. in, 120, 125. 

2 The point has been made that Isidore shows his ignorance of the 
Greek language by the mistakes he made in the use of Greek words in 
his derivations. A few examples selected almost at random may be 
useful in this connection, although it must be remembered that the 
possibility of corruption in the text is always great. 

(a) 3, 22, 6. " Chordas autem dictas a corde." 

(b) 3, 22, 8. " Lyra dicta curb rov Ivpelv a varietate vocum." 

(c) 12, 1, 35. " Camur enim Graecum verbum curvum significat " 
Why Isidore in (a) does not give the natural derivation from xopty 
is not clear unless his knowledge of Greek was very slight, hvpsiv, 
in (b), is a form that is not found in Greek. In (c) camur is not a 
Greek word written in Roman letters, as Isidore apparently thought. 
See Harper's Latin Dictionary. Compare also the form in which Aris- 
totle's Kepi epfujveiag is cited : de periher mentis, praefatio perihermeni- 
arum, in libro perihermeniarum (2, 27). Isidore's Greek has given his 
editors much trouble. See Migne, Pair. Lat. 81, 328, for comment upon 
it by Vulcanius, who edited the Etymologies in 1577. 



37] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE 37 

What aspects, then, of the Latin literary tradition, which 
alone has to be taken into account, are of importance as 
giving an understanding of Isidore and his works ? 

To him, no doubt, the literary past seemed to be filled 
chiefly with the succession of Christian writers from Ter- 
tullian to Gregory the Great. These, starting out with a re- 
ligion to which a primitive cosmology was tenaciously at- 
tached, were really engaged in amalgamating with it the 
less hostile items of the Graeco-Roman intellectual inheri- 
tance. Men like Augustine were occupied in de-secularizing 
the knowledge of their times; that is, in reshaping it so that 
it should fill a subordinate place in the religious scheme and 
so support that scheme, or at least not be in opposition to 
it. Orosius' feat of reshaping history so that it was sub- 
servient to religion, is a good example of what was going 
on in every field. Such secular knowledge as was allowed 
to exist was brought into more or less close relation to the 
religious ideas that dominated thinkers, and whatever could 
not be thus reshaped tended to be rejected and forgotten. 
The nearest approach to an exception to this is found in the 
subjects that had formed the educational curriculum of the 
Greeks and Romans. These offered robust opposition to 
de-secularization; and though they were attenuated to al- 
most nothing, they succeeded in maintaining their separate 
existence. This process of de-secularization was about 
complete by the time of Cassiodorous ; in him we have an 
intellectual outlook that recognizes, outside of the religious 
scheme, only the seven liberal arts. 1 

On the other hand, there was the pagan literary tradition, 
which owed all the value that it possessed to contact with 
Greek culture. Except in the field of legal social relations, 
the Romans made no original contribution to civilization. 

1 See p. 83. 



38 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [38 

They had no proper curiosity concerning the universe, and 
so could do no thinking of vital importance concerning it. 
Anything approaching scientific thought in the modern 
sense was absolutely unknown to them. Therefore, while 
most of their writers were prosaic and secular in their 
habit of mind and free from mystical leanings, the intel- 
lectual possession of the Romans was not of the close-knit 
rational character which would have enabled them to re- 
sist successfully the avalanche of Oriental superstition 
which descended on the Western world in the centuries 
after the conquest of the East. 1 Secular thought in the 
Roman civilization was thus doomed to undergo a process 
of decay. 

The branch of pagan Latin literature which throws most 
light on the character of Isidore's Etymologies is the suc- 
cession of encyclopedias which constituted so conspicuous 
a feature of literary history under the Empire. The chief 
writers in this field, in order of time, were Varro, Verrius 
Flaccus, the elder Pliny, Suetonius, Pompeius Festus, and 
Nonius Marcellus. While the motives and causes that im- 
pelled them to their task were doubtless many and intricate, 
consideration of a few paramount influences by which they 
were affected will explain much of the character of their 
work, and will indicate the origin of the main peculiarities 
of Isidore's encyclopaedia. 

In the first place, it is in these encyclopaedias, which pro- 
fess to cover the fields of literary scholarship and natural 
science, that the intellectual decline most clearly reveals 
itself. They may be regarded on the one hand as repre- 
senting the successive stages in the decay of the intellectual 
inheritance, and in them we may trace the way in which 

1 For a brief account of Oriental influences in Roman religion, see 
Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (Lon- 
don, 1898), ch. 4. 



39] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE ^g 

the array of ordered knowledge was steadily losing in both 
content and quality. Viewed, on the other hand, as a 
totality, and considered with reference to the impulses that 
led to their production, they are again symptomatic of de- 
generation; they stand as the most thorough-going ex- 
ample of the epitomizing tendency which permeated Roman 
thought and which evidenced its decline. Written as they 
were by the intellectual leaders of their day, they represent 
a curious reversal of the modern situation, since where the 
leaders in the modern expansion of thought have devoted 
themselves to specialized inquiry, those of the Roman em- 
pire gave their attention to compiling and arranging the 
whole body of knowledge rather than to extending it at 
any point. The conditions of their time drove them to 
generalize rather than to specialize. 

These encyclopedias are pervaded by a tone of literary 
scholarship. It was a peculiarity of Latin literature that 
philology was almost as old as poetry. The Roman poetry 
was a mere reflection of the Greek, the poets invariably 
knowing Greek and either translating from it or following 
Greek models. Poetry so produced was inevitably arti- 
ficial and in need of elucidation. These conditions favored 
the rapid growth of criticism; grammar, word derivation, 
philology, antiquarian history were favorite studies from 
early times, engaging the attention even of leading Romans. 
There was even a sort of literary science ; for example, 
Varro's geography, which was meant to include the geo- 
graphical allusions of the poets. A mass of scholarly lore 
was thus accumulated and this soon became unwieldly. It 
was the function of Varro and Verrius Flaccus especially 
to reduce this mass to order and to bring it into such shape 
that it could be referred to readily. To effect the latter 
object Verrius Flaccus introduced the method of alpha- 
betical arrangement, using this for the first time in his 



4 o ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 4 q 

great work De Verborum Significatu. These two writers 
gave, then, in their encyclopedic works a survey of the ap- 
paratus for literary criticism, including a sort of literary 
science, and the whole succession of encyclopedic writers 
was greatly influenced by the example which they set. 

In the works of Pliny and Suetonius, who followed 
Varro and Verrius Flaccus, natural science is brought into 
the foreground. The change, however, was but slight. 
The natural science of the Romans was anything but scien- 
tific; neither experiment, systematic observation, nor re- 
search had ever been practiced among them. Their science 
was an affair of books and was of an authoritative char- 
acter. Even the poets were looked upon as possessing scien- 
tific knowledge and were seriously quoted to maintain sci- 
entific theses. There was no real distinction between the 
natural and philological sciences of the time, and therefore 
the encyclopedia of literary criticism was closely allied 
with that of natural science. 

As illustrating the character of the encyclopedias it is 
worth. while to notice more fully the method by which they 
were produced. As has been suggested, Roman scholars 
and scientists under the Empire were little more than note- 
takers. Pliny the Elder is the typical example of this ten- 
dency; a student of extraordinary diligence, his study con- 
sisted in reading, making extracts, and compiling them. 
Such was the origin of his Natural History, He left to 
his nephew, in addition, the legacy of " one hundred and 
sixty common-place books, written on both sides of the 
scroll and in very small handwriting ".* The full effect of 
the tendency thus illustrated cannot be perceived, however, 
if we think merely of the process as it was carried on by 
Pliny, for he consulted chiefly original works ; when, later, 

1 Younger Pliny, Epistles, 3, 5. 



4 i ] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE 4I 

extracts began to be made from works that were themselves 
compiled from extracts, when epitomes began to be epi- 
tomized, a state of confusion and feebleness of thought 
inevitably ensued. This is the condition which is exempli- 
fied in the two latest of the Roman encyclopedists, Pom- 
peius Festus and Nonius Marcellus, and the tradition is 
continued in Isidore. 

The body of knowledge gathered together under all these 
influences possessed little of a positive nature. It was in- 
formed by no general ideas of a striking character and it 
entirely lacked the element of reasoned proof. Since its 
science was a science of authority, it was easy for the 
Christian writers to modify it by substituting the authority 
of the Scriptures for that of pagan writers. In fact, the 
encyclopedias furnished to the church fathers secular 
knowledge in a particularly convenient and unobjectionable 
form. Augustine, especially, made great use of Varro. It 
can be seen that this literary form was better adapted than 
any other to pass with unbroken continuity from ancient 
into medieval literature. 

It is then to the succession of Roman encyclopedists that 
we must go to explain the method, spirit, and content of 
Isidore's Etymologies. A comparison of the organization 
of the material and of the sub-titles of Isidore's work with 
those of the Roman writers, 1 so far as they are known, 

1 An outline of the contents of leading encyclopedic works, so far 
as known, is here given for purposes of comparison with the contents 
of the Etymologies. 

Marcus Terentius Varro, 116-28 B. C. 

Antiquitatum Return Humanarum et Divinarum Libri XLI. 
Rerum Humanarum Libri XXV. 
Bk. 1. Introduction. 
2-7. de hominibus. 

8-13. de locis (8, Rome; 11, Italy; 12, remaining Europe; 
13, Asia and Africa). 



42 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [42 

shows the extent of his indebtedness. The literary and 
philological flavor, the stress on word history and deriva- 
tion, the pseudo-science based on authority, the conspicuous 

14-18. de temporibus (14, introduction; 15, de saeculis ; 16, de 
lustris ; 17, de annis ; 18, de mensibus ; 19, de diebus). 
20-25. de rebus. 

Rerum Divinarum Libri XVI. 
Bk. 26. Introduction. 
27-29. de hominibus. 
30-32. de locis. 
33S5- de temporibus. 
36-38. de rebus. 
38-41. de diis. 

This encyclopedia stands for the interests of the scholarly antiquarian 
rather than for those of the man interested in natural science. The 
work itself is lost, but the nature of its contents is fairly well known, 
thanks to St. Augustine. For further information regarding Varro's 
encyclopedic works, see Boissier, £tude sur la vie et les ouvrages de 
M. Varron, Paris, 1861 ; and Geschichte der Romischen Litter atur, 
Martin Schanz, Miinchen, 1909, Erster Teil, Zweite Halfte, 187, 188. 

Verrius Flaccus (flourished under Augustus). 
De Verborum Significatu. 

The work itself has been lost, as also the greater part of the abbre- 
viation of it to twenty books made by Pompeius Festus before 200 
A. D. Festus's abridgement was further abridged by Paulus Diaconus 
in Charlemagne's time. It is regarded as certain that material in Isi- 
dore's Etymologies came directly or indirectly from the De Verborum 
Significatu. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays, Oxford, 1885. 

Pliny the Elder (23-79 A. D.). 

Naturalis Historiae Libri XXXVII. 
Bk. 1. Contents and lists of sources. 
2. Description of the universe. 
3-6. Geography. 

7. Man. 

8. Animals. 

9. Fishes. 

10. Eirds. 

11. Insects. 

12-27. Trees, shrubs, plants, including medicinal botany. 
27-32. Medicinal zoology. 



43] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE 43 

tendency to confusion and feebleness of thought, the habit 
of heedless copying that we find in an aggravated form in 
the Etymologies, all these are inherited characteristics that 
betray the origin of the work. 

But though the example which was furnished by the 
Roman encyclopedists was by far the strongest literary 

32-37. Metals, colors, stones, and gems, especially from the 
artist's point of view. 

Dressel, De Isidori Originum Fontibus, pp. 243-247, in Rivista di filo- 
logia, 1874-75, gives an incomplete list of Isidore's borrowings from 
Pliny. He points out Isidore's carelessness in borrowing in one case 
where he shows that what Pliny tells us of the echineis, Isidore hastily 
assigns to the mullus. Cf. Isidore 12, 6, 25, with Pliny, 32; 8, 9, 70, 
138-39. 

Suetonius Tranquillus (last of first century and first half of second). 
Praia. 

This work is lost. It was an encyclopedia in at least ten books, of 
which the titles of some books and fragments have been recovered, a 
large portion of them from the Etymologies and De Natura Rerum. 
Among the subjects were leges, mores, temp or a, mundus, animantium 
naturae. Isidore quotes Suetonius twice. See A. Reifferscheid, C. Sue- 
toni Tranquilli Reliquiae, Leipzig, i860, pp. 155 et seq., and Schanz, 
Geschichte der Romischen Litteratur, Dritter TeiL pp. 47-66. 

Nonius Marcellus (early fourth century). 
Compendiosa Doctrina ad Filium. 

Bks. 1 -12. Grammatical in character, including one book, (5) 
De Differentia Similium Signiticationum. 

13. de genere navigiorum. 

14. de genere vestimentorum. 

15. de genere vasorum vel poculorum. 

16. de genere calciamentorum. 

17. de coloribus vestimentorum. 

18. de genere ciborum vel potorum. 

19. de genere armorum. 

20. de propinquitatum vocabulis. 

This work is, in part, in dictionary form (Bks. 1-6). There is much 
resemblance between passages in Nonius Marcellus and in the Ety- 
mologies, which Nettleship believes to be due to the use of a common 
source. Nettleship, " Nonius Marcellus,"' in Lectures and Essays. 
Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus, Oxford, 1901. 



44 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [44 

factor which influenced Isidore in the composition of the 
Etymologies, it was not the only one of importance. A 
minor type of encyclopedia, that of education, occurs in 
Latin literature. The first example of it is furnished by 
Varro in his Disciplinarum Libri IX; x this work had, how- 
ever, disappeared before Isidore's time. Varro found no 
successor until the fourth century, when Martianus Capella 
wrote his account of the seven liberal arts, 2 giving thus a 
comprehensive treatment of the subject-matter of educa- 
tion. He was followed in the sixth century by Cassiodorus. 
whose De Artibus et Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum 
Isidore certainly had before him when he wrote the account 
of the seven liberal arts which occupies the first three books 
of the Etymologies. Isidore's work therefore appears to 
be a fusion of the minor encyclopedia of education and the 
major encyclopedia of all knowledge. 

We are now in a position to form a clearer judgment of 
the personal element which Isidore contributed to the com- 
position of the Etymologies. It is worth while in the first 
place to point out that the essentials of the work are de- 
rived from the pagan, not the Christian, side of the Latin 
tradition. This in itself showed a commendable initiative, 
considering that it was the age of Gregory the Great. It 
was Isidore's function to adjust the secular learning thus 
obtained to a new and lower level of thought and to the 
Christian philosophy of the time. The way in which this 
was accomplished constitutes the only original element in 
the treatment of the subject-matter. The adjustment was 
secured partly by an amalgamation of the pseudo-science 

1 Disciplinarum Libri IX. Bk. 1. Grammar. Bk. 2. Dialectic. Bk. 3. 
Rhetoric. Bk. 4. Geometry. Bk. 5. Arithmetic. Bk. 6. Astrology. 
Bk. 7. Music. Bk. 8. Medicine. Bk. 9. Architecture. (Conjectural list 
of disciplines given by Ritschl, Opusc. 3, p. 312.) 

8 Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. 



45] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE 45 

of the church fathers with that found in the encyclopedic 
writings, and by the inclusion of the three books which 
deal with religious matters, but chiefly by the new spirit in 
which secular knowledge was conceived. The works of 
Pliny and Suetonius were surveys of what was known; 
that of Isidore was a survey of " what ought to be known ". 
For his age secular knowledge was valuable, not for itself, 
but for edification. In theory, at least, it was Isidore's 
notion that such knowledge might " avail for life if applied 
to the better uses ". 

The question of the actual sources used by Isidore in 
the Etymologies and in his other works of a secular nature 
is a difficult one. The literary tradition of the period pre- 
ceding his, which was mainly a time of compiling and epi- 
tomizing, is so complicated and confused that the student 
cannot be certain, when he finds the exact wording of a 
writer in the work of another who preceded him, that the 
former has borrowed from the latter. Both may have 
borrowed from another source or even from two different 
sources identical as respects the passage in question. 1 In 
the task of ascertaining Isidore's sources the difficulties 
already enumerated are increased by the loss of important 
works upon which it is pretty certain that he drew, 2 and 
also by his habit of quoting the sources quoted by his au- 
thorities as if they were his own. 3 

However, although there has been no thorough-going 
investigation of this question, much has been accomplished 
by students interested in sections of the Etymologies, such, 
for example, as those on music and law. Classical scholars 
also have investigated his sources in a more general way, 

1 See p. 91. 2 E. g. Suetonius, Praia. 

3 See pp. 106, 114. 



46 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [46 

but their efforts have been not so much directed to the elu- 
cidation of Isidore himself as inspired by the hope of re- 
covering some fragments of the classical authors. The 
varying conclusions reached show that no great certainty 
has been attained, but it is possible to give a tentative list 
of sources which will indicate roughly the nature of the 
influences which contributed to form Isidore's ideas. 1 It 

1 Dressel, De Isidori Originum Fontibus, in Rivista di filologia, 1874- 
75 discusses Isidore's method of using his sources, and gives a list of 
writers and works to which he traces passages in Isidore, giving usually 
a list of the latter. The writers include Sallust, Justinus, Hegesippus, 
Orosius, Pliny, Solinus, the abridger of Vitruvius, Lucretius, Hyginus, 
Cassiodorus, Servius, the scholia on Lucan. 

Nettleship, Lectures and Essays, Oxford, 1885, devotes attention 
chiefly to the encyclopedic tradition, treating of Verrius Flaccus, the 
Glosses of Placidus, the Nodes Atticae of Gellius, Nonius Marcellus, 
and Servius. He treats of Isidore only by the way, and lays stress on 
his debt to Suetonius, Praia, and Verrius Flaccus, De Verborum Sig- 
niiicatu. See pp. 330-336, and for opinion of Latin encyclopedic tra- 
dition, pp. 283-285. 

ReirYerscheid, Suetonii Reliquiae, recovers several passages of Sue- 
tonius from Isidore. 

C. Schmidt, Quaestiones de musicis scriptoribus Romanis inprimts de 
Cassiodoro et Isidoro, traces Isidore's De Musica to an unknown Chris- 
tian writer. 

G. Becker, editor of De Natura Rerum, Berlin, 1857, discusses the 
sources of that work especially, tracing it to Suetonius, Solinus, and 
Hyginus on the one hand, and Ambrose, Clement, Augustine, on the 
other. 

H. Hertzberg, Die Chronikon des Isidors, Forsch. zu deutschen 
Geschichte, 15, 280 et seq., discusses the sources of Isidore's Chronica, 
which he traces to Jerome's translation of Eusebius with later continua- 
tions. The same writer also treats of the sources of The History of 
the Goths, (Gott. 1874). 

H. Usener, Anecdoton Holderi (Bonn, 1877), p. 65, asserts that Isi- 
dore did not use Cassiodorus's encyclopedia of the liberal arts. 

M. Conrat, Geschichte des Quellen und Literatur des Romischen 
Rechts in Friiheren Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1891) treats of the sources of 
Isidore's Leges, pp. 151 et seq.; as also Voigt, Jus Naturale, 1, 576 
et seq., and Dirksen, Hinterlassen Schriften, 1, 185 et seq. 

Arno Schenk, De Isidori Hispalensis de natura rerum libelli fontibus, 



47 ] RELATION TO PREVIOUS CULTURE 4 y 

seems probable that his working library contained works 
of the following authors : Lactantius, Tertullian, Jerome, 
Ambrose, Augustine, Orosius, Cassiodorus, Suetonius, 
Pliny, Solinus, Hyginus, Sallust, Hegesippus, the abridger 
of Vitruvius, Servius, the scholia on Lucan, and Justinus. 

Jena, 1909, finds that Isidore wrote the De Natura Rerum and the 
Etymologiae from his collection of excerpts which is drawn from Am- 
brose, Clement, Augustine, Jerome, the scholiast on Germanicus, Hy- 
ginus, Servius, the scholia on Lucan, Solinus, Suetonius, and a number 
of the Roman poets. This dissertation is largely meant to show that 
Reifferscheid in his work, Suetonii Reliquiae, had gone too far in 
attributing passages found in Isidore to Suetonius, 

M. Klussman, Excerpta TertulUanea in Isidori Hispalensis Etymolo- 
giis, Hamburg, 1892, gives a list of nearly seventy passages borrowed 
by Isidore from Tertullian, at the same time pointing out that credit for 
the parsr.ges is nowhere assigned to the latter. 



CHAPTER III 
Isidore's World View 

Is it possible to ascertain from the writings of Isidore 
what was the general view of the universe and the attitude 
toward life held in the sixth and seventh centuries? 

On first thought it seems doubtful. As has been indi- 
cated, his works, and especially the Etymologies, form a 
mosaic of borrowings, whose ultimate origin is to be traced 
to unnumbered writings in both Greek and Latin, and in 
both Christian and pagan literatures. We find side by side 
in Isidore the ideas of Aristotle, Nicomachus, Porphyry, 
Varro, Cicero, Suetonius, Moses, St. Paul, Origen, and 
Augustine, to mention only a few; and these ideas, al- 
though as a rule they have undergone degeneration, are 
sometimes in the original words or a close rendering of 
them. If viewed closely they are a mass of confusion and 
incoherence. This is natural ; such eclectism as had existed 
for centuries in the Roman, pagan and Christian, systems 
of thought is not compatible with consistency. Incoherence 
in the intellectual possession was inevitable; equally in- 
evitable was an increasing indifference to incoherence and 
even inability to perceive it. The words of a writer of 
such a period must therefore not be pressed too hard. Too 
close an investigation would land the inquirer in hopeless 
confusion. 

Furthermore, even in writers far more consecutive in 
their thinking than Isidore, there are often fundamental 
preconceptions which are naively taken for granted, and 
48 [48 



49] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 49 

which, although unstated, serve as points around which to 
mass ideas. If the reader does not happen to approach 
the subject with the same preconceptions, a misapprehen- 
sion is likely to result. It is the business of the critic to 
grasp these preconceptions and place the reader on the 
same plane of understanding, as it were, so that he can 
follow the meaning as it lay in the mind of the writer. 
Sometimes this undertaking is possible, but in the case of 
a writer like Isidore, whose ideas are often hazy and whose 
work is a conglomerate of ten centuries, it may easily be 
impossible. 1 

However, it must be remembered that such an absence 
of an acute self-consciousness as is indicated in the con- 
dition just described, is exactly the thing that enables men 
to perform feats of an astonishing character in construct- 
ing a world-philosophy, if perchance they have a taste in 
that direction. Their minds, not being irritated or roused 
by any perception of inconsistency, rest happy in the con- 
viction that all is explained, and remain oblivious of that 
sense of mystery which forms the background of modern 
scientific thought. As tested from this point of view the 
medieval period afforded the conditions for a complacent 
and authoritative world-philosophy, such as in fact it did 
possess. 

1 For example, Isidore evidently had a theory as to the origin and 
value of language, but he does not state it anywhere, although innu- 
merable times he approaches the subject in an oblique sort of way. 
See p. 99. Again, he never tells us whether he believed the earth to 
be flat or spherical ; he uses at one time language that belongs to the 
spherical earth, and at another, language that can have sense only if he 
believed the earth to be flat. Here we have not only no definite state- 
ment of the conception — although it must have existed in his mind, 
considering the frequency of his writings on the physical universe — but 
we have in addition the puzzle of deciding which set of expressions 
used in this connection was meaningless to him. See pp. 50-54 and Ap- 
pendix. 



50 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [e 

The difficulties in ascertaining the world view held by 
Isidore are, then, considerable; but, since he was the lead- 
ing representative of the intellect of the dark ages, and the 
only important writer on secular subjects in two centuries 
of western European history, the attempt to ascertain it 
seems worth while. In making this attempt, however, it 
is necessary to keep these difficulties of interpretation in 
mind ; the danger is that we shall lay too much stress on the 
minor inconsistencies which he probably was not aware of, 
and so fail to see that large general consistency which, be- 
cause of his lack of critical sensitiveness, he was able to 
believe that he found. 

Isidore's physical universe x in its form is geocentric, 
and is bounded by a revolving sphere which he believed to 
be made of fire, and in which the stars are fixed. The ques- 
tion of the number of spheres he treats in an inconsistent 
way, sometimes speaking of seven concentric inner spheres, 
and sometimes of only one. 2 The relative size of sun, 
earth, and moon is accurately given — though, it appears, 
not without misgiving 3 — and also the cause of eclipses of 
both the sun and the moon. 

The subject of greatest interest in this connection is, of 
course, the question whether or not Isidore believed in the 
sphericity of the earth. It is maintaind by some authorities 
that this notion was not lost at any time during the middle 
ages. Isidore certainly believed that the heavens consti- 
tuted a sphere or spheres, and that the sun and moon re- 
volved in circles around the earth. He states the theory of 

1 For Isidore's physical universe in general, see Etym. 3, 24-71 ; 13, 
4-6; De Natura Rerum, 9-27. See pp. 142-154, 234, 243. 

2 Isidore seems to have kept an open mind on the question of the 
number of the spheres. He says : de nutnero eorum [coelorum] nihil 
sibi praesumat kumana temeritas. D. N. R., 13, 1. 

3 See 2, 24. 2 (p. 116). 



5 i] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW ^ 

the zones correctly in two passages, 1 applying it, however, 
not to the spherical earth but to the sphere of the heavens. 
On the other hand, he frequently gives expression to 
notions belonging to a primitive cosmology. 2 The suspicion 
is aroused, therefore, that when he was stating astronomi- 
cal ideas, he was usually simply copying what perhaps he 
did not understand. A passage that seems to settle the 
matter is found in De Natura Rerum. It shows that the 
fact that he could state such a theory as that of the zones 
correctly, is no proof that he understood its application to 
the earth. A translation of the passage follows : 

In describing the universe the philosophers mention five circles, 
which the Greeks call TrapdU^loi, that is, zones, into which the 
circle of lands is divided. . . . Now let us imagine them after 
the manner of our right hand, so that the thumb may be called 
the Arctic circle, uninhabitable because of cold ; the second, 
the summer circle, temperate, inhabitable; the middle (finger), 
the equinoctial (Isemerinus) circle, torrid, uninhabitable; the 
fourth, the winter circle, temperate, inhabitable ; the fifth, the 
Antarctic circle, frigid, uninhabitable. The first of these is the 
northern, the second, the solstitial, the third, the equinoctial, 
the fourth, the winter circle, the fifth, the southern. . . . The 
following figure shows the divisions of these circles. (Fig. I.) 
Now, the equinoctial circle is uninhabitable because the sun, 
speeding through the midst of the heaven, creates an excessive 
heat in these places, so that, on account of the parched earth, 
crops do not grow there, nor are men permitted to dwell there, 
because of the great heat. But, on the other hand, the northern 
and southern circles, being adjacent to each other, are not in- 
habited, for the reason that they are situated far from the sun's 
course, and are rendered waste by the great rigor of the 
climate and the icy blasts of the winds. But the circle of the 

1 3, 44; 13, 6. See p. 146. 

2 See Appendix I. 



52 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^ 2 

summer solstice which is situated in the east, between the 
northern circle and the circle of heat, and the circle which is 
placed in the west, between the circle of the heat and the south- 



Fig. I 




em circle, are temperate for the reason that they derive cold 
from one circle, heat from the other. Of which Virgil [says] : 

" Between these and the middle [zone] two are granted to 
wretched mortals by the gift of the gods." 

Now, they who are next to the torrid circle are the Ethio- 
pians, who are burnt by excessive heat. 1 

1 De Quinque Circulis. 

" In definitione autem mundi circulos aiunt philosophi quinque, quos 
Graeci napaXkifkovc, — id est, zonas — vocant, in quibus dividitur orbis 
terrae. . . . Sed fingamus eas in modum dextrae nostrae, ut pollex 
sit circulus apKriKoc, frigore inhabitabilis ; secundus circulus %>wdf, 
temperatus habitabilis; medius circulus la?j/uepivb^^ torridus inhabita- 
bilis ; quartus circulus x^ i f J - £ P'- v ^ , temperatus habitabilis ; quintus circulus 



53] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 53 

The explanation of the passage and of the figure which 
illustrates it seems to be that Isidore accepted the termin- 
ology of the spherical earth from Hyginus 1 without taking 
the time to understand it — if indeed he had the ability to 
do so — and applied it without compunction to the flat earth. 
He evidently thought that zona and circulus were inter- 
changeable terms, 2 and his " circles " did not run around 
the circumference of a spherical earth, but lay flat on a flat 
earth, where they filled with sufficient completeness the 
orbis terrae or circle of the land. 3 The adjustment of the 

avTapnTinbc , frigidus inhabitabilis. Horum primus septentrionalis est, 
secundas solstitialis, tertius aequinoctialis, quartus hiemalis, quintus 
australis. . . . 
"Quorum circulorum divisiones talis distinguit figura (Fig. I). 

3. " Sed ideo aequinoctialis circulus inhabitabilis est, quia sol per 
medium coelum currens nimium his locis facit fervorem, ita ut nee 
fruges ibi nascantur propter exustam terram, nee homines propter 
nimium ardorem habitare permittantur. At contra septentrionalis et 
australis circuit sibi conjuncti idcirco non habitantur, quia a cursu 
solis longe positi sunt, nimioque caeli rigore ventorumque gelidis 
flatibus contabescunt. 

4. " Solstitialis vero circulus, qui in Oriente inter septentrionalem 
et aestivum est collocatus, vel iste qui in Occidente inter aestivum et 
australem est positus, ideo temperati sunt eo quod ex uno circulo 
rigorem, ex altero calorem habeant. De quibus Virgilius : 

" Has inter mediamque duae mortalibus aegris 
Munere concessae divum. 
" Sed qui proximi sunt aestivo circulo, ipsi sunt Aethiopes nimio 
calore perusti." De Natura Rerum, ch. x. 

1 The two passages in which Isidore states the theory of the zones 
correctly are from! Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon (Mythographi 
Latini, ed. Muncker, Amsterdam, 1691). Cf. p. 146. 

2 For a similar confusion of sphaera and circulus see Appendix I. 

a That this was Isidore's conception of the land surface is evident 
from many passages (e. g., see p. 244) and is made certain from his 
map (p. 5). This map is found in an old edition of the Etymologies 
(Libri Etymologiarum . . . et de Summo Bono Libri III, Venetiis, 
1483) in the library of Union Theological Seminary. 



54 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [-4 

two conflicting theories was extremely crude, since it in- 
volved placing the arctic and antarctic circles side by side, 
and the two temperate circles one in the east and one in the 
west. 

By such a blunder as this may be measured the stagna- 
tion of the secular thought of the time. Of Greek science 
only remnants were in existence, and these were regarded 
with indifference. Writers like Isidore might use them, but 
they did not hesitate to mangle and distort them. More- 
over they were given only second place even in the science 
of the day; the first place was held by the notions of the 
natural world expressed in the Scriptures. Each one of 
these, no matter how primitive or how figurative, had to 
be taken seriously into account and given its proper weight 
in building up the general scheme. In this intellectual ac- 
tivity Isidore is more at home than when he is handling the 
ideas of the pagans, as may be perceived from his discus- 
sion of the shape of the firmament : " As to its shape, 
whether it covers the earth from above like a plate, or like 
an egg-shell shuts the whole creation in on every side, 
thinkers take opposite views. For the mention the Psalmist 
makes of this when he says : Extendas coelum sicut pellern, 1 
does not conflict with either opinion, since when his own 
skin covers any animal, it envelopes equally every part all 
around, and when it is removed from the flesh and stretched 
out, there is no doubt that it can form a chamber either 
rectangular or curved." 2 

The vastness of the physical universe is an idea not pre- 
sented in Isidore's writings. It was for his mind really a 
small universe, and one limited sharply by definite bound- 
aries both in time and space. It had begun at the creation, 

1 Cf. Psalms, 104, 2. 

2 De Ordine Creaturarum Liber, 4, 1-2.. 



55] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 55 

its matter being constituted at that time out of nothing, and 
it was to have an end as sharply marked. It extended 
from the earth to the sphere of the heavens which revolved 
about the earth, and what was beyond scarcely appears even 
as a question. It was a universe in which high winds 
might, and sometimes did, dislodge particles from the fiery 
heavens ; x and in which the sun approached so close to 
some of the inhabitants of the earth as to scorch them. 2 
In truth, Isidore's universe was reduced to rather stifling 
proportions. 

A fundamental part of Isidore's world-philosophy was 
his view of the constitution of matter. This is closely 
bound up with his conception of the form of the universe, 
and it is also the most important of his ideas in the field of 
natural science. 

He believed in the existence of the four elements, earth, 
air, fire, and water, 3 and that they were the visible mani- 
festations of one underlying matter. 4 They were not mu- 
tually exclusive but " all elements existed in all ", and it 
was possible for one element to be transmuted into an- 
other. Their properties were not invariable, but as a rule 
fire is spoken of as hot and dry; air, hot and wet; water, 
wet and cold ; earth, cold and dry. It will be observed that 
each successive pair of elements had a common quality: 
thus fire and air shared the quality of ' hot ' ; air and 
water, that of ' wet ' ; water and earth, that of ' cold ' ; 
earth and fire, that of ' dry '. It was by the aid of these 

1 3, 71, 3- 

2 De Natura Rerum, ch. 10. 

3 For a clear account of the theory of the four elements in medieval 
thought see Les Quatre Elements, J. Leminne in Memoires couronees 
par I'Academie Royale de Belgique, v. 65, Bruxelles, 1903. 

4 Etym., 13, 3. Cf. D. N. R., 11. 



56 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 5 6 

common qualities, which served as means, that the elements 
could be more easily thought of as passing into each other. 1 

It should be remarked that the general idea is the same 
as that of modern chemistry in so far as it assumes that 
there are elements and attributes properties to them. The 
difference is that the modern chemist insists that the prop- 
erties shall be fixed for each element, while Isidore has no 
consciousness of such a necessity. For instance, in a chap- 
ter of De Natitra Rerum he attributes two separate sets of 
properties to the four elements, without realizing at all 
the confusion of such a procedure. Again, from the point 
of view of the best ancient conception of the four elements, 
Isidore is equally at fault. For Aristotle the names given 
to them had been merely labels. He perceived in the 
natural world two significant sets of opposing qualities, 
namely, hot and cold, wet and dry. These sets of opposing 
qualities interpenetrated one another: the result was four 
possible combinations, namely, hot and dry, hot and wet, 
cold and wet, cold and dry. His elements designated 
merely these combinations and were nothing more than 
conventional names for them. Isidore, however, took the 
names of the elements in a literal sense. 3 The label itself 
had become important, while what stood behind it and gave 
it its value was regarded as almost meaningless. What 
has happened here is typical of the whole development of 
ancient thought down to Isidore's time. 

Of Aristotle's conception of a fifth element, the quinta 
essentia, or ether, superior to the others and permeating 
them, Isidore shows merely a trace. He says in one passage 

1 The theory of atoms is also stated by Isidore. See p. 235. It is 
not used, however, and is not fully stated. The part played in the 
theory by atoms of different sizes is not mentioned, and although 
"the void" is mentioned, its importance is not brought out. 

■ See Art. "Chemistry," Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edition. 



57J ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 57 

that " ether is the place where the stars are, and it signifies 
that fire which is separated on high from all the universe". 1 
He offers also another definition in which he confuses three 
of the elements of Aristotle : " Ether is the upper, fiery- 
air ". 2 

The theory of the four elements, as has been already in- 
dicated, has a cosmological bearing. In the universe at 
large the elements were thought of as tending to arrange 
themselves in strata according to weight. Isidore says it 
is proved if that earth is the heaviest of all things created; 
and therefore, they say, it holds the lowest place in the 
creation, because by nature nothing but itself can support 
it. And we perceive that water is heavier than air in pro- 
portion as it is lighter than earth. . . . Fire, too, is appre- 
hended to be in its nature above air, which is easily proved 
even in the case of fire that burns in earthy substance, 
since as soon as it is kindled, it directs its flame toward the 
upper spaces which are above the air, where there is an 
abundance of it, and where it has its place." 3 

Thus the physical universe consists of the four kinds of 
matter, stratified according to the principle of weight. The 
notion was one in frequent use, 4 and it was brought into 

1 Etym., 13, 5, 1. 

2 Diff., 1, 82. 

3 De Ordine Creat. Liber, 4, 5-6. Cf. D. N. R., 11. The problem of 
" the waters above the firmament," which occupied the minds of the 
church fathers so much, and which is at variance with the cosmolog- 
ical side of the theory of the four elements, Isidore seems inclined to 
settle by regarding it as a miracle. Cf. D. N. R., 14. 

4 In the De Natura Rerum and the De Ordine Creaturarum, as well 
as in Books XIII-XIV of the Etymologies, Isidore follows the order 
of the four elements in describing the universe. His fidelity to this 
order, as well as the variations of emphasis and of minor treatment 
which he introduced into it, are of interest. These may be exhibited 
in parallel form as follows: 



58 



ISIDORE OF SEVILLE 



[; 



relation with animate existence by assigning to each of the 
four strata a peculiar population. Thus the fiery heavens 
were occupied by angels ; the air, by birds and demons ; the 
water, by fishes; the earth, by man and other animals. 1 
The theory of the four elements was fertile in every 





Etymologies 


De Katura 


De Ordine 




Books xiii and xiv 


Kerum 


Creaturarum 




xiii, chaps. 4-6 


chaps. 9-27 


4-6 


Fire 


Astronomy 


Astronomy, fuller 


Astronomy, briefer, with 


(the 






an account of the 


heavens) 






angels, the inhabit- 
ants of the element 
of fire 




xiii, 7-12 


28-39 


7-8 


Air 


The atmosphere and 


The same, fuller 


The same, briefer, with 




meteorological 




an account of de- 




phenomena 




mons, the inhabitants 
of the air 



XUI, 12-22 

Water A description of 

water with a geog- 
raphy of the water 
surface of the earth 



40-44 9 

The same in very The same, briefer, with- 
much abbreviated out the geography 
form 



xiv, 1-9 
A description of the 
dry land with a 
geography of the 
land surface of the 
earth 



45-48 10-15 

Earth A description of the The same in very The same, briefer than 

much abbreviated in De Natura Pe- 
form rum, with an account 

of men as the inhab- 
itants of this element, 
their nature and 
future life 

This table indicates the great stress Isidore laid upon the cosmo- 
logical side of the theory of the four elements, as well as his ten- 
dency to use his large general ideas in relating the individual branches 
of knowledge. Here astronomy, meteorology, and geography are thus 
grouped together, and angelology is put into relation with astronomy 
and demonology with meteorology. 

1 Etym., 13, 3, 3, and 8, 11, 17. 



59 ] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 59 

branch of the natural science of medieval times. Isidore 
uses it, for example, to explain the physical constitution 
of man: 

Man's body is divided among the four elements. For he has 
in him something of fire, of air, of water, and of earth. There 
is the quality of earth in the flesh, of moisture in the blood, 
of air in the breath, of fire in the vital heat. Moreover, the 
four-fold division of the human body indicates the four ele- 
ments. Fox the head is related to the heavens, and in it are 
two eyes, as it were the luminaries of the sun and moon. The 
breast is akin to the air, because the breathings are emitted 
from it as the breath of the winds from the air. The belly is 
likened to the sea, because of the collection of all the humors, 
the gathering of the waters as it were. The feet, finally, are 
compared to the earth, because they are dry like the earth. 
Further, the mind is placed in the citadel of the head like God 
in the heavens, to look upon and govern all from a high place. 1 

In another passage Isidore tells us that fire has its seat in 
the liver, and that " it flies thence up to the head as if to 
the heavens of our body. From this fire the rays of the 
eyes flash, and from the middle of it, as from a center, 
narrow passages lead not only to the eyes but to the other 
senses ". 2 

Naturally the four elements play a great part in medi- 
cine. They are related to the four humors, blood, yellow 
bile, black bile, and phlegm. " Each humor imitates its ele- 
ment ; blood, air ; 3 yellow bile, fire ; black bile, earth ; 
phlegm, water. Health depends on the proper blending of 
these humors." 4 It appears to have been the belief of the 

1 Diit., 2, 17, 48. 2 Diff., 2, 17, 67. 

3 Here blood and the element, air, are related; the passage quoted 
in the preceding paragraph shows a similar relation between blood 
and the element water. Such inconsistencies are extremely common. 

4 Etym., 4. 5. 



60 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [6 

time that the humors possessed each the same qualities as 
the corresponding element. Medical reasoning might con- 
fine itself to the four humors or it might go back of them 
to the four elements, as in the explanation of vertigo, 
where the diagnosis indicates, apparently, the transmuta- 
tion of one element into another. Isidore says : " The 
arteriae [air passages] and veins produce a windiness in 
man's head from a resolving of moisture, and make a 
whirling in his eyes whence it is called vertigo ", 1 

That notions of such a loose, semi-philosophical nature 
should survive while the solid empirical content of medical 
science faded away, is characteristic of the decline of 
thought which culminated in the dark ages. The science 
of medicine had cut itself loose from concrete things, and 
attached itself almost exclusively to the vague philosophical 
conceptions from which even the best Greek thinkers had 
not been able to free it. 

The phenomena of meteorology, also, were explained 
largely by the four elements. The upper air was believed 
to be akin to the fire above it, and was therefore calm and 
cloudless; while the lower air was supposed to be cloudy 
and disturbed by storms because of its proximity to water, 
the next element below it in the series. 2 Further, the belief 
in the possibility of the transmutation of elements was of 
use here. Air, for example, might be transmuted into 
water, or water into air. 3 As Isidore puts it: " [air] being 
contracted, makes clouds; being thickened, rain; when the 
clouds freeze, snow; when thick clouds freeze in a more 
disordered way, hail; being spread abroad, it causes fine 
weather, for it is well-known that thick air is a cloud, and a 
rarified and spread-out cloud is air." 4 

*j Etym., 4, 7, 4. * Etym., 13, 7, 1. * Etym., 13, 3. 

* Etym., 13, 7. Almost side by side with this explanation of rain is 
another which says that rains " arise from an exhalation from land 



6i] 



ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 



61 



The most remote fields are invaded by the four elements. 
It is by reference to them that the seasons are explained. 
Here use is made rather of their properties than of the ele- 
ments themselves. ' The spring is composed of moisture 

Fig. 2 




and heat; the summer, of fire and dryness; the autumn, of 
dryness and cold; the winter, of cold and miosture." 1 
From this the transition is easy to another far-fetched ap- 
plication of the theory. The four quarters of the universe. 
East, West, North, and South, are connected with the four 
seasons, and thus with the four elements. This conception 

and sea, which being carried aloft falls in drops on the lands, being 
acted upon by the sun's heat, or condensed by strong winds," 13, 10, 2. 
Lightning is explained as caused by the collision of clouds (13, 9, 1) ; 
thunder, by their bursting (13, 8) ; the rain-bow, by the sun shining 
into a hollow cloud (13, 10, 1). 
1 D. N. R., 7, 4- Cf. Etym., 5, 35, 1. 



62 



ISIDORE OF SEVILLE 



[62 



seemed to Isidore so important that he introduced a figure 
to illustrate it. (Fig. II.) 

The old notion that man is a microcosm or parallel of 
the universe on a small scale, was familiar to Isidore. As 
has been shown, he believed that man was composed of 
the same four elements as the universe, and that they were 

Fig. 3 




distributed in him in much the same way as in it. It was 
going only a step further for him to declare that " all things 
are contained in man, and in him exists the nature of all 
things " ; x after which it was easy " to place man in com- 
munion with the fabric of the universe " 2 by means of a 
figure. (Fig. III.) 

1 Sent., 1, n, 1. 

2 " Mundus est universitas omnis, quae constat ex coelo et terra. . . 
Secundum mysticum sensum, mundus competenter homo significatur, 



63] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 63 

The idea of the parallelism of man and the universe, 
when thus literally conceived, was a fruitful one. Man 
could be explained by the universe. And the process could 
be reversed and the universe also explained by man, since 
man may be observed in his entirety and his life history 
may be easily followed, while that of the universe may not. 
Isidore doubtless took this view, for he says : " The plan 
of the universe is to be inquired into according to man 
alone. For just as man passes to his end through definite 
ages, so too the universe is passing away during this pro- 
longed time, since both man and the universe decay after 
they reach their growth." 1 The division of the life of the 
universe, for example, into six definite ages, which he in- 
corporated into his chronology, was given greater certainty 
and meaning from the similar division of man's life into 
six ages. 

The wide scope assigned by Isidore to the action of the 
four elements — which scope includes the immaterial as well 
as the material — is completely alien to the modern way of 
thinking; as is, also, the bringing of the universe, the year, 
and man, into so intimate and specific a connection. Still 
more difficult is it for us to grasp such an idea as that the 
ounce " is reckoned a lawful weight because the number 
of its scruples measures the hours of the day and night " ; 2 
or that " the Hebrews use twenty-two letters of the alpha- 
bet, following the [number of] books in the Old Testa- 
ment ". 3 And the climax is reached when he expresses the 
notion that a man bursts into tears as soon as he casts him- 

quia sicut ille ex quatuor concretus est elementis, ita et iste constat 
quatuor humoribus uno temperamento commistis. Unde et veteres 
hominem in communionem fabricae mundi constituerunt. Siquidem 
Graece mundus /coa/zoc, homo autem fiiKpoKoa/nog, id est minor mundus, 
est appellatus." D. N. R., g, 2, and 3. Cf. 11, 3. 

1 Sentent., 1, 8, 1-2. 2 Etym., 16, 25, 19. 

3 Etym., 1, 3, 4. Cf. 6, 1, 3. 



64 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [6 4 

self down on his knees, because the knees and the eyes are 
close together in the womb. 1 

Although these examples of Isidore's thinking afford ex- 
cellent proof of his incoherence and lack of logical con- 
secutiveness, their explanation goes deeper. Like all primi- 
tive thinkers, those of medieval times were firmly con- 
vinced of the solidarity of the universe; they felt its unity 
much more strongly than they did its multiplicity; what 
we regard as separate kinds of phenomena and separate 
ways of viewing the universe they regarded as of necessity 
closely inter-related. There were no categories of thought 
that were for them mutually exclusive; they carried their 
ideas without hesitation from the material into the imma- 
terial, and from the natural into the supernatural. No 
conception established in one sphere seemed impertinent in 
any other. It was this state of mind that enabled the medi- 
eval thinker to take such erratic leaps from one sphere of 
thought to another, without any feeling of uncertainty or 
any fear of getting lost 2 

Perhaps nothing illustrates more clearly the erratic think- 
ing to which this idea of the solidarity of the universe led, 
than the way in which Isidore reasons about number. To 
his mind the fact, for instance, that " God in the beginning 
made twenty-two works " explains why there are twenty- 
two sextarii in the bushel ; and that " there were twenty- 
two generations from Adam to Jacob, and twenty-two 
books of the Old Testament as far as Esther, and twenty- 

1 Etym., ii, I, 109. Cf. Diff., 2, 17, 56 and 71. 

2 While this mode of viewing the universe had its origin in pagan 
antiquity, and even earlier, its scope was greatly enlarged by Christian 
thinkers. Living in a world whose general constitution and purpose 
they thought they thoroughly understood, they were confident that 
even in its smallest details there could be perceived a conscious adap- 
tation to the whole. This idea they often carried so far as seemingly 
to leave no place for chance or convention. Each trifling matter was 
given a meaning that was greater than itself. 



65] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 65 

two letters of the alphabet out of which the divine law is 
composed 'V were additional explanations for the same 
thing. A like connection is found in his statement that 
" the pound is counted a kind of perfect weight because it 
is made up of as many ounces as the year has months ". 2 

Isidore's conceptions in regard to number, indeed, de- 
serve to be ranked closely after the theory of the four ele- 
ments as affording to him " paths of intelligence " through 
the universe, material and immaterial. Both in the world 
at large and in the microcosm of man the harmony of 
"musical numbers" is an essential; 3 and number is also 
an essential factor in every part and aspect of the uni- 
verse. ' Take number from all things," he says, " and all 
things perish." 4 However, his idea of the importance of 
number in the world is equaled only by the vagueness with 
which he conceived its operations as a working principle. 
Here he takes absolute leave of the logic which, in his ac- 
count of the four elements, he had already so often left 
behind. The best he could do, in describing the actual 
operation of this principle, was to make lists of instances 
in which the same number occurred, and no matter how 
unrelated the spheres of thought thus connected, to assume 
their close interrelation and explanation of one another. 

It is now clear that according to Isidore's way of think- 
ing, a fact belonging to one set of phenomena might be 
caused or explained by something totally different in an- 
other sphere. This being so, it was inevitable that there 
should be an effort to pass from the known to the unknown 
along the path thus suggested. When we reflect that, for 
the medieval thinker, there were three kinds of knowledge 
— namely, knowledge of the material, the moral, and the 

1 Etym., 16, 26, 10. i Etym., 16, 25, 20. 

5 Etym., 3, 23, 2. *Etym., 3, 4, 3. 



66 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [66 

spiritual — and that they were in an ascending scale of 
value, it will appear equally inevitable that this effort to 
pass from the known to the unknown should be mainly an 
effort to pass from the material and obvious to the in- 
tangible and unseen, though more real, spiritual world. In 
this consideration we have the chief explanation of medi- 
eval allegory. 1 

In Isidore we find that allegorical interpretation is a 
thing of little spontaniety. The allegorizing of the Scrip- 
tures had long before his time settled down into a system. 
In his Certain Allegories of the Holy Scriptures a list is 
given of the most noted mystical interpretations of Scrip- 
ture, a dry enumeration, with now and then an interesting 
side-light upon the opinion of the time. The extent to 
which the Scripture was subject to allegorizing may be 
guessed from the fact that Isidore specifies that " the ten 
commandments must be taken literally ". 2 Allegory is 
applied also to the phenomena of nature. In De Natura 
Rernm Isidore makes a regular practice of first giving the 

1 The explanation suggested accounts for the prevalence of allegory 
in medieval times. Among the less comprehensive and not character- 
istically medieval causes for it must be reckoned the influence of the 
parables that are explained in the New Testament, the occasional 
grossness of Biblical characters and language which called for an 
interpretation that would remove offence and offer edification, the 
congenial activity which allegorizing offered to the pious mind, and, 
finally, the fact that by a clever use of allegorical interpretation some 
desired end might be obtained. 

2 Migne, P. L., 83, col. 303. " Inter haec igitur omnia decern prae- 
cepta solum ibi quod de Sabbato positum est figurate observandum 
praecipitur. Quam figuram nos intelligendam, non etiam per otium 
corporale celebrandam, suscipimus. Reliqua tamen ibi praecepta 
proprie praecepta sunt, quae sine ulla figurata significatione obser- 
vantur. Nihil enim mystice significant, sed sic intelliguntur ut sonant. 
Et notandum quia sicut decern plagis percutiuntur Aegyptii, sic decern 
praeceptis conscribuntur tabulae, quibus regantur populi Dei." The 
Scriptures were for Isidore un vasto simbolismo (Canal, San Isidoro, 
p. 5i). 



6y] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 67 

explanation of natural phenomena and following this with 
the " higher meaning ". Thus the sun has Christ for its 
allegorical meaning; the stars, the saints; thunder is " the 
rebuke from on high of the divine voice ", or it may be 
" the loud preaching of the saints, which dins with loud 
clamor in the ears of the faithful over all the circle of the 
lands 'V In the Etymologies this "higher meaning" of na- 
tural objects is rarely given. 

The view held in the dark ages of the natural and the 
supernatural and of their relative proportions in the out- 
look on life, was precisely the reverse of that held by in- 
telligent men in modern times. For us the material uni- 
verse has taken on the aspect of order; within its limits 
phenomena seem to follow definite modes of behavior, 
upon the evidence of which a body of scientific knowledge 
has been built up. Indeed at times in certain branches of 
science there has been danger of a dogmatism akin to, if 
the reverse of, that which prevailed in medieval times with 
reference to the supernatural. On the other hand, the cer- 
tainty that once existed in regard to the supernatural world 
has faded away; no means of investigating it that com- 
mands confidence has been devised, and any idea held in 
regard to it is believed to be void of truth if inconsistent 
with the conclusions reached by science. In all these 
respects the attitude of Isidore and his time is exactly op- 
posite to ours. To him the supernatural world was the 
demonstrable and ordered one. Its phenomena, or what 
were supposed to be such, were accepted as valid, while no 
importance was attached to evidence offered by the senses 
as to the material. It may even be said that the super- 
natural universe bulked far larger in the mind of the medi- 
eval thinker than does the natural in that of the modern, 

1 D. N. R., 29, 2. 



68 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE 

and it was fortified by an immeasurably stronger and more 
uncritical dogmatism. 

It is evident, therefore, that if we compare the dogmatic 
world-view of the medieval thinker with the more tentative 
one of the modern scientist, allowance must be made for 
the fact that they take hold of the universe at opposite ends. 
Their plans are so fundamentally different that it is hard to 
express the meaning of one in terms of the other. 

Isidore's method of apprehending the supernatural world 
can hardly be called mysticism. With mysticism we asso- 
ciate intuition and exalted feeling, and the examples that 
have been given of Isidore's thinking in terms of allegory 
and number, show that he thought of the supernatural in 
the same prosaic and literal way as he did of the natural; 
there was no break for him between them, nor was there 
any change of intellectual atmosphere when he crossed the 
line. So the higher sense at least of the term ' mystic ' 
must be denied him. His share in the mysticism of his 
age, which he accepted unquestioningly, was not a positive 
one; he exhibits rather the negative side of mysticism, the 
intellectual haziness, slothfulness and self-delusion by which 
it was so often accompanied in medieval times. 

Isidore believed that in point of time the supernatural 
preceded the natural. He says that God " created all things 
out of nothing ", x and, again, that " the matter from which 
the universe was formed preceded the things created out 
of it not in time, but in origin, in the same sense as sound 
precedes music ". 2 It is evident that he regarded the ma- 
terial as an emanation from the spiritual. With such an 
origin the material world was naturally subservient to 
spiritual control, and miracles caused little wonder. They 

1 De Natura Rerum, 14, 2. 
1 Sent., 1, 8, 6. 



69] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 69 

" are not contrary to nature, because they are caused by the 
divine will, and the will of the Creator is the nature of each 
created thing. ... A miracle, therefore, does not happen 
contrary to nature, but contrary to nature as known." 1 
The supernatural thus not only preceded, but dominated, 
the natural. Finally, the universe was to disappear at the 
end of six ages, and all was to be reabsorbed in the super- 
natural. The world of nature, then, was merely a passing 
incident in a greater reality that contained it. 

As in the universe at large, so in man the supernatural 
completely overshadows the natural. The soul is all-im- 
portant and theory in regard to it is precise and dogmatic. 
" As to the soul," Isidore says, ik the philosophers of this 
world have described with great uncertainty what it is, 
what it is like, where it is, what form it has, and what its 
power is. Some have said it is fire; others, blood; others 
that it is incorporeal and has no shape. A number have 
believed with rash impiety that it is a part of the divine 
nature. But we say that it is not fire nor blood, but that it 
is incorporeal, capable of feeling and of change; without 
weight, shape, or color. And we say that the soul is not a 
part, but a creature of God, and that it is not of the sub- 
stance of God, or of any underlying matter of the elements, 
but was created out of nothing." 2 He says further, that 
the soul " has a beginning but cannot have an end ". 3 All 
the activities by which life is manifested are considered as 
parts or functions of the soul. Dum contemplatur, spiritus 
est ; dum sentit, sensus est ; dum sapit, animus est ; dum in - 
telligit, mens est; dum discernit, ratio est; dum consentit, 
voluntas est ; dum recordatur, memoria est ; et dum membra 
vegetat, anima est. 4 

In contrast with the soul the body scarcely deserves to be 

1 Etym., 11, 3, 1 and 2. 2 Diff., 2, 100. 

3 Diff., 2, 92. 4 Ditf., 2, 97. 



yo ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 7 q 

spoken of except with disparagement. Its goods are to 
be unhesitatingly sacrificed to those of the supernatural ele- 
ment in man, or rather, they are not regarded as goods at 
all. " It is advantageous," Isidore says, " for those who 
are well and strong to become infirm, lest through the vigor 
of their health they be defiled by illicit passions and the de- 
sire for luxury ". 1 The present life of the body has no 
value ; it is brief and wretched. " Holy men desire to spurn 
the world and devote the activity of their minds to things 
above, in order to convey themselves back to the place 
from which they have come, and withdraw from the place 
into which they have been cast." 2 Thus philosophy of the 
supernatural culminated in asceticism. 

Isidore's supernatural world has its inhabitants, and in 
dealing with these he has a theology, an angelology, and a 
demonology; in all of which fields his ideas are more pre- 
cise and clear-cut than where he speaks of the material 
world. 

His theology is of little interest ; it consists in the ortho- 
dox view of the time, accepted without a shadow of criti- 
cism. He says, " We are not permitted to form any belief 
of our own will, or to choose a belief that someone else has 
accepted of his own. We have God's apostles as authori- 
ties, who did not themselves choose anything of what they 
should believe, but they faithfully transmitted to the nations 
the teaching received from Christ. And so even if an 
angel from heaven shall preach otherwise, let him be ana- 
thema ". 3 

The minor inhabitants of Isidore's supernatural world, 
the angels and demons, offer a more practical interest. 
They represent the stage of development at which the old 
polytheism of the Jews had adjusted itself to monotheism, 

1 Sentent., 3, 3, 5- 2 Sentent., 3, 16, 5- 

8 Etym., 8, 3, 2-3. 



yi ] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW j 1 

but had by no means faded out of existence. Indeed, it is 
plain that at this time the immediate concern of the ordi- 
nary man was with these spirits, good and bad; while be- 
tween man and God there were, for the most part, only 
mediate relations. 

The number of these spirits was very great; each place 
had its angel, as had each man, — and, presumably, a demon 
as well. The seraphim, the highest order in the hierarchy 
of angels, were a multitude in themselves. We may sur- 
mise that for Isidore, as for Jerome, the entire human 
population of the world was as nothing compared with the 
entire population of spirits. 1 

The good angels are marshalled in a hierarchy of nine 
orders, to which they were assigned in order of merit at 
the beginning of the world, and to each of these a specified 
task is given. For example, the order named virtues (yir- 
tutes) has charge of miracles ; and the business of the sera- 
phim is " to veil the face and feet of God ". 2 The nature 
of the angels is described succinctly in a paragraph of the 
Differentiae: 

Angels are of spiritual substance; they were created before all 
creatures and made subject to change by nature, but were ren- 
dered changeless by the contemplation of God. They are not 
subject to passion, they possess reason, are immortal, perpetual 
in blessedness, with no anxiety for their felicity, and with fore- 
knowledge of the future. They govern the world according 
to command ; they take bodies from the upper air ; 3 they dwell 
in the heavens. 4 

1 Jerome, In Isiam, Lib. xi, ch. 40. " Ita universa gentium multitudo 
supernis ministeriis et angelorum multitudini comparata pro nihilo 
ducitur." Cf. Etym., 7, 5, 19. 

2 Etym., 7, 5, 24. 

3 For appearance to man. Cf. Angeli corpora in quibus hominibus 
apparent, de superno aere sumunt. Sentent., 1, 10, 19. 

*Diff., 2, 41. 



J2 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [y 2 

The special virtue of the good angels is subjection to God. 
' There is no greater iniquity for them than to wish to 
glory not in God but in themselves "- 1 The gaps in their 
ranks caused by the fall of the bad angels were to be filled 
from the number of the elect. 2 

The demons, or bad angels, were created along with the 
good ; indeed the devil, their leader, was first created of all 
the angels. It was " before the time of the visible uni- 
verse " that their fall took place; at that time they lost " all 
the good of their natures " and all possibility of pardon. 3 
They are the " enemies of mankind " and are " sent on the 
service of vengeance ". The only restraint on their malig- 
nity is that they are obliged to obey God. Isidore sums up 
their activities in a fear-inspiring way : 

They unsettle the senses, stir low passions, disorder life, cause 
alarms in sleep, bring diseases, fill the mind with terror, dis- 
tort the limbs, control the way in which lots are cast, make a 
pretence at oracles by their tricks, arouse the passion of love, 
create the heat of cupidity, lurk in consecrated images ; when 
invoked they appear ; they tell lies that resemble the truth ; they 
take on different forms, and sometimes appear in the likeness 
of angels. 4 

Their capacity for evil tasks is increased by their superior 
intelligence, which retains '■■ the keen perception of the an- 
gelic creation ". 5 Their power of foreknowledge, and, in 
addition, the duration of their experience, make the struggle 
against them a hopeless one for man. They are also in- 
credibly persistent : " The devil never rests from his attack 
on the just man ", who is " sometimes reduced to straits 
of despair ". 6 

1 Sentent., I, 10, 16. 2 Sentent., I, 10, 13. 

* De Ord. Creat., 8, 7-10. 4 Diff., 2, 41. 

5 Sentent., 1, 10, 17. 6 Sentent., 3, 5, 35-3& 



73] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW 73 

It is evident that these demons were an all-pervading 
factor in the life of the time. They were conceived of as 
entering the mind, both waking and sleeping, and furnish- 
ing it with the very material for thought and action. The 
Christian, by the aid of the good angels, was alone able to 
defeat them, and, moreover, he alone realized the necessity 
of combating them. The pagans of the pre-Christian era, 
on the other hand, were believed to have been willing vic- 
tims. The trail of demonic influence could be found in 
every department of their life and thought, especially in 
their religion, which was very close to demon worship, and 
in their philosophy and poetry. 1 

It is of interest to notice in detail Isidore's scale of values 
for secular learning, as shown in opinions expressed 
throughout his works. How did the fields of thought that 
had filled the horizon of the thinker of classical times, ap- 
pear in the perspective of the dark ages? 

Philosophy, 2 in the first place, no longer stands for any 
active principle : all its old aspect of metaphysical and 
ethical inquiry has been lost. It is merely a container in 
which minor subjects are arranged in a comprehensive 
plan, and the only interest which it presents, as philosophy, 
is to be found in the question of what minor subjects are 
included and how they are grouped. Here Isidore is more 
inconsistent than usual. He gives three plans of the field 
of knowledge, all substantially differing from one another 
in details and all strikingly different from his own mar- 
shaling of all knowledge in the Etymologies. The only re- 
flection of value suggested by the treatment of philosophy 
in Isidore's works is that in being de-secularized it has 

1 See pp. 199-206. 

2 Four definitions are given, 2. 24, 3 and 9. Cf. 8, 6, 1 ; Ditf., 2, 149. 
See pp. 116-119. For the marshaling of the minor subjects under phil- 
osophy see Appendix II. 



74 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [y 4 

completely lost its essential content. It can, therefore, no 
longer be a source of offence to any Christian. 

The pagan philosophy, however, was a different thing. 
It was known to have been concerned with the same prob- 
lems as was Christian theology. It had thus a certain right 
to exist and a certain value, but this terminated with the 
appearance of Christianity. As Isidore puts it, " the phil- 
osophers of this world certainly knew God, but the humility 
of Christ displeased them and they went astray " ; " they 
fell in with wicked angels and the devil became their medi- 
ator for death as Christ became ours for life ". 1 After 
Christian theology had settled beyond the shadow of a 
doubt the problems that had occupied the pagan philoso- 
phers, these latter could cause only trouble. Pagan phil- 
osophy now stood only for a perversion of the wisdom 
which was found in its true form in the books of the 
Scriptural canon and the works of the church Fathers. Its 
" errors " were believed to be the source of the heresies in 
the church. " The same material is used and the same 
errors are embraced over and over again by philosophers 
and heretics ". 2 

Isidore's idea of the function of poetry is a peculiar one. 
" It is the business of the poet," he says, " to take veritable 
occurrences and gracefully change and transform them to 
other appearances by a figurative and indirect mode of 
speech ". 3 From this it might be inferred that he thought 

1 Sentent., i, 17, 1-4. 

2 Etym., 8, 6, 23. In books VII and VIII of the Etymologies, where 
the subjects taken up appear to be treated in the order of merit, the 
place of the pagan philosophers in the list is an instructive one. The 
list is as follows : God, the persons of the Trinity, angels, patriarchs, 
prophets and martyrs, the clergy, the faithful, heretics, pagan philoso- 
phers, poets, sibyls, magi, the heathen, and heathen gods, who are the 
equivalent of demons. See p. 196, note. 

3 8, 7, 10. 



75] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW ~- 

that the use of poetry was to furnish material for alle- 
gorical interpretation. He ranks the poets of pagan an- 
tiquity below the philosophers, and brings serious charges 
against them. He asserts that they have " disregarded the 
proper meanings of words under the compulsion of metre " 
and have thus been guilty of introducing a great amount 
of confusion into thought and language. 1 His most vigor- 
ous indictment of pagan poetry, however, is that it had its 
origin in the pagan religions, which he identifies with 
demon worship. He quotes Suetonius to establish this 
point : " When men . . . first began to know themselves 
and their gods, they used for themselves a modest way of 
living and only necessary words, while for the worship of 
their gods they devised magnificence in each ". This "mag- 
nificence " of speech is alleged to have been poetry. 2 With 
such opinions, he naturally desired the ostracism of poetry. 
: ' The Christian is forbidden to read their lies." 3 

Toward pagan philosophy and poetry, then, Isidore's 
attitude is hostile, and it is very improbable that he ever 
wasted any time on them. But in the field of secular knowl- 
edge apart from these subjects he has, within limits, a use 
for the inheritance left by pagan Rome. It is his chief 
claim to recognition that he was not absolutely content with 
the de-secularized science that he found in Ambrose, 
Jerome and Augustine, but had the independence to go 
behind it and draw upon its original sources in Roman 
literature. The spirit in which he did this, however, was 
not the spirit of revolt, but apparently only a natural desire 
for more extended information. His critical faculty did 

1 See p. 26. 2 8, 7, 1. 

3 Sentent., 3, 13, 1. It seems extremely probable that Isidore did 
not quote from the poets directly but merely appropriated along with 
other material the quotations contained in the sources which he con- 
sulted. 



j6 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [j£ 

not warn him that in seeking this information from pagan 
sources he was passing from one intellectual atmosphere to 
another; his mind was too literal and plodding and dwelt 
too much on details to notice when it was on dangerous 
ground. His resort to pagan science was not always happy 
in its result; but the many blunders which he made cannot 
affect the merit of his enterprise in going beyond the circle 
of Christian writers ; and it must be said for his version of 
secular knowledge, as contained in his secular writings, 
that, poor as it was, it was one without which the middle 
ages would have been a great deal poorer. 

As a matter of fact, Isidore did not leave the science of 
the Roman Empire in a state much worse than that in 
which he found it. It had been undergoing a process of 
decay for centuries. At their best the Roman men of sci- 
ence had been unable even to appropriate the more abstract 
parts of Greek science. They were governed throughout 
by a short-sighted practicality, as when, for instance, in the 
case of the mathematical sciences they tried to take over 
results without taking the method of reaching or verifying 
them. In the natural sciences their inferiority was only 
less marked. Here the absence of critical method permitted 
the incorporation of many superstitious notions. As has 
been pointed out, the Roman science was wholly a science 
of authority, and the greatest scientist was the the greatest 
accumulator of previous authorities. Thus throughout its 
course in the Roman world science had been beating a re- 
treat. By Isidore's time these forces of short-sighted utili- 
tarianism, the spirit of subservience to authority, and super- 
stition, had brought it to a state of inoffensive feebleness 
such that it was more welcome to the Christian than was 
either poetry or philosophy. 

This Roman pseudo-science could not, however, hold an 
important place in the thinking of the time: the funda- 



77] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW yy 

mental conceptions that prevailed forbade it. The ma- 
terial world held a low place, as we have seen; on every 
side evidence can be found of an ascending scale of values 
from the material through the moral to the spiritual. Upon 
this idea is founded " the triple method of interpretation " x 
used in the Scriptures and elsewhere, and with it is con- 
nected the triple division of knowledge into natural sci- 
ence, ethics, and theology. There was not only an ascend- 
ing scale of value for the different sorts of knowledge, but 
an ascending scale of validity. Spiritual truth and moral 
truth transcended the truth of material facts, whose stub- 
bornness had been forgotten and had not yet been re-dis- 
covered. Yet, with all this depreciation of the material, 
it in some measure reasserted itself : as the literal meaning 
had to be grasped in the Scriptures before the higher mean- 
ing could be educed, so the material world had to be recog- 
nized before its higher meaning could be ascertained. This 
was the basis for science in the philosophy of the dark ages. 
In this way Isidore's pseudo-science was brought into 
harmony with religion. Natural science was, indeed, con- 
cerned with the lowest and faintest form of reality, namely, 
the material world ; but even material things had their spir- 
itual implications, and because of this were worthy of an 
orderly survey. The De Natura Rerum, in which each 
term is explained first as it relates to the natural world and 
then as to its higher meaning, shows how science played the 
subordinate part just indicated. It is of great interest at 
this point to notice that Isidore's successor, Rabanus 
Maurus, in his comprehensive encyclopedia De Universo, 
which follows Isidore's Etymologies closely, adds, how- 

x " Illud trimodum intelligentiae genus," Diif., 2, 154. Cf. " Tripli- 
citer autem scribitur, dum non solum historialiter vel mystice sed 
etiam moraliter quid in unum quodque gerere debeat edocetur." Contra 
Judaeos, 2, 20. See also De Ord. Creat., 10, 4-7 and Etym., 6, 1, 11 
(p. 186). 



78 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 7 g 

ever, the higher meanings which Isidore had left out in his 
work. 1 It is the importance of natural science from this 
point of view that Isidore has in mind in a passage in the 
Sententiae: " It does no harm to anyone if, because of sim- 
plicity, he has an inadequate idea of the elements, provided 
only he speaks the truth of God. For even though one may 
not be able to discuss the incorporeal and the corporeal na- 
tures, an upright life with faith makes him blessed." 2 

He is far, however, from expressing complete approval 
of pagan science ; the perversity of the pagan scientists for- 
bids this. ,l The philosophers of the world are highly 
praised for the measuring of time, and the tracing of the 
course of the stars, and the analysis of the elements. Still, 
they had this only from God. Flying proudly through the 
air like birds, and plunging into the deep sea like fishes, 
and walking like dumb animals, they gained knowledge of 
the earth, but they would not seek with all their minds to 
know their Maker ". 3 

In judging the quality of Isidore's science as science, we 
must remember that he is separated from Pliny, his great 
predecessor in the encyclopedic field, by nearly six cen- 
turies, and that those six centuries form a period of con- 
tinuous intellectual decline; and, further, we must bear in 
mind the fact that Pliny himself sometimes copied what he 

1 De Universo is published in Migne, Pair. Lat., 3. In the preface 
Rabanus says : " Much is set forth in this work concerning the natures 
of things and the meanings of words and also as to the mystical sig- 
nification of things. Accordingly I have arranged my matter so that 
the reader may find the historical and mystical explanations of each 
thing set together (continuatim positam) ; and so may be able to 
satisfy his desire to know both significations." Isidore's Etymologies 
is said to have been left unfinished (quamvis imperfectum ipse reli- 
querit. Braulio's Introduction. See p. 25). The conjecture may be 
offered that the finishing of the work might have meant chiefly the 
insertion of " the higher meaning". 

2 Sentent., 2, 1, 14. s Sentent., 1, 17, 2. 



79] ISIDORE'S WORLD VIEW yg 

did not understand, and was so little of a scientist as even 
to welcome the marvelous. 1 After this, what can be ex- 
pected from Isidore? That he wrote what he did write, 
at the time he did, is in itself the astonishing fact. His 
work is the only symptom of intellectual life in two cen- 
turies of Western European history. 

Isidore's view of the past was as simple and dogmatic 
as his view of the universe at large; in fact it was condi- 
tioned by his world-view. The acceptance of Christianity 
and the new scale of values thus introduced had of neces- 
sity involved the projection of the new interests into the 
past. The legendary background of the new religion had 
accelerated the process. The past, as seen by writers of 
the pagan civilization and as reflecting the interests of that 
civilization, now became of no service, and, as a whole, was 
dropped. The pagan histories were regarded as written by 
men whose point of view was wholly false and mischievous, 
even though sometimes their facts might be correct. They 
were approached by the Christian re-adjusters of history 
in much the same spirit as that in which the modern his- 
torian goes to the medieval chronicle, though with an oppo- 
site aim: the modern historian is after what is social and 
human, while Augustine and Orosius were after illustra- 
tions of the ways of God to man. 2 

By Isidore's time, then, the Christian view of the past 
had become completely desecularized. Biblical tradition 
dominated all historical thinking. On the six days of crea- 
tion was centered special attention. This point, at which 
the natural emanated from the supernatural, fascinated the 
medieval thinker as the doctrine of evolution does the mod- 

1 Cuvier, Histoire des Sciences Naturelles, vol. i, pp. 260-280. 

2 Cf. Isidore's attitude : " The histories of the gentiles do no harm 
where they tell of what is profitable," 1, 41, 1. See p. 103. 



8o ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [80 

em. It formed the touch-stone by the aid of which was 
interpreted not only the material world, 1 but also the course 
of history. In parallelism with the six days and the six 
periods in man's life, the history of the world was divided 
with absolute defmiteness into six ages. Isidore himself 
was living in the sixth and last of these, " the residue of 
which was known to God alone ". 2 His view of the past 
had no perspective; or rather, it had an inverted per- 
spective, because the increasing confusion of every depart- 
ment of the sublunar world led him to dwell in preference 
upon the earlier time when the course of history was con- 
fined to the pure stream of Hebrew tradition, when the 
supernatural manifested itself more frequently, and when 
even the names of personages were charged with prophetic 
meaning. 

In this inverted perspective the history of the Hebrews 
naturally formed a prominent part. The Hebrew people of 
antiquity and their language, which is traced back to Adam, 
were the original race and language. It was only " at the 
building of the tower after the flood that the diversity of 
languages arose ". On this occasion not only did the dif- 
ferent languages of later history appear, but at the same 
time and as a result, the different races of mankind were 
constituted. 3 All languages, then, and all races, are var- 
iants of the Hebrew type. Isidore believed that even in his 
time some of the nations could be traced back and identified 
with the original Hebrew stock by etymologizing on their 
names. Others, however, had cast aside their old names 
and taken others, " either from kings or countries or cus- 
toms or other causes ", and the genealogy of these he be- 
lieved to be irretrievably lost. 4 

1 See p. 28 and note. ■ 5, 38, 5 ; 5, &• 

9, I, I. 4 9. 2 > l 3 2 - 



CHAPTER IV 
Isidore's Relation to Education 

The question of perpetuating the pagan range of edu- 
cational subjects presented a great difficulty to the leaders 
of patristic and early medieval thought, so great a diffi- 
culty that some of them were almost more ready to dis- 
card education than to try to separate it from its heathen 
entanglements. In both the Greek and Roman worlds 
formal education had been late in developing; as a conse- 
quence its tone was wholly secular. Its object was to put 
the youth of the ruling classes in touch with the culture and 
life of the time. The subjects found most serviceable for 
study were literature, rhetoric, and philosophy. The sci- 
ences known to the ancients gradually gained a foot-hold 
also, and instruction began to be given in a number of 
them, including geometry, music, arithmetic, astronomy, 
medicine, and architecture. Finally, the subject-matter of 
education settled down to the stereotyped list of seven sub- 
jects, known as " the seven liberal arts ", from which there 
was apparently little deviation in later Roman and medi- 
eval times. 1 This formal education of the Romans was so 

1 The basis on which the canon of the seven liberal arts was formed 
is indicated by a passage in Martianus Capella, who makes Apollo say- 
in regard to the exclusion of medicine and architecture from it that 
" their attention and skill is given to mortal and earthly things, and 
they have nothing in common with the ether and the gods ; it is not 
unseemly to reject them with loathing." (Ed. Eyssenhardt, IV, 13). 
The Christian Isidore held much the same notion as the pagan Capella. 
He believed that the order of the seven liberal arts terminating in 
astronomy was one whose object was "to free souls entangled by 
81] 81 



82 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE rg 2 

well established and enjoyed such prestige that in spite of 
Christian hostility it continued to flourish until the in- 
creasing disorganization of society in the fifth and sixth 
centuries made the continuance of secular schools impos- 
sible. 

Upon their disappearance the whole burden of main- 
taining education fell upon the church. In the church or- 
ganization the effective bodies for such an activity were the 
groups of clergy attached to cathedrals and to monasteries. 
There was no system established by a central authority and 
enforced by public opinion to guide the efforts made by 
these bodies, and it is plain that in each case educational 
facilities for the training of priests would be provided in 
accordance with the intelligence and character of the dif- 
ferent bishops and abbots. Where the ecclesiastical au- 
thorities were ignorant or careless, the training of the 
priest or monk must have degenerated to a sort of appren- 
ticeship. The evidence which we possess of the illiteracy * 
of the clergy would lead us to infer that in the dark ages 
education, in any sense worthy of the name, was sporadic, 
the product of the happy coincidence of opportunity and 
an ecclesiastic intelligent enough to realize it. 2 

The first comprehensive effort 3 to deal with the educa- 

secular wisdom from earthly matters and set them at meditation upon 
the things on high" (3, 71, 41). See also pp. 65, 77. It is plain 
enough that education in both the pagan and Christian spheres was 
strongly affected by the mystical tendency of the time, and it is not 
too much to say that the seven liberal arts stand not so much for the 
impracticality of a "gentleman's" education as for that desirable 
in the education of a mystic. 

1 Cf. Canal, San Isidoro (Sevilla, 1897), p. 23. 

2 Cf. Roger, L'Enseignment des lettres classiques d'Ausone a Alcuin 
(Paris, 1905), pp. 126-129. 

8 Of Augustine's treatises on grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geom- 
etry, arithmetic, and music, all but that on music were lost within a 



83] ISIDORES RELATION TO EDUCATION 83 

tional situation from the Christian standpoint was made 
by Cassiodorus and was designed expressly to meet the 
needs of the inmates of a monastery in Southern Italy. 
Naturally he put forth his main endeavor on the side of 
what may be called theology, but, in addition, he felt im- 
pelled to give very brief and vague accounts of the seven 
liberal arts, which he was reluctantly forced to consider as 
an indispensable preparation for the former study. 1 

Cassiodorus' attitude toward these preliminary studies 
is a curious one. He believed that their subject-matter was 
to be found scattered through the Scriptures and that " the 
teachers of secular learning " had gathered together the 
disjointed bits of information and organized them into the 
seven liberal arts. As a consequence he thought that a 
knowledge of these arts was of assistance when any passage 
relating to them was met in the reading of the Scriptures. 
In spite of this, however, it seems to have been his opinion 
that the less use made of them the better, and that, if 
ignorance of the liberal arts was a fault, it was certainly 
one of a minor character and had the advantage of not en- 
dangering the Christian's faith. 2 With Cassiodorus the 

very short time. They could have had but little influence. Cf. 
Retract, 1, c. 6, and Teuffel and Schwabe, History of Roman Litera- 
ture, Sect. 440, 7. 

1 M. Aurelii Cassiodori De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum and 
De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum. In ' Migne, P. L., 
vol. 70. 

2 Cassiodorus, De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum, Migne, P. L., 
70, 1 108 and 1 141. In the former of these passages Cassiodorus dis- 
cusses also the question whether there should be absolute reliance on 
divine aid in the interpretation of the Scriptures — in which connec- 
tion he cites miraculous interpretations by illiterate persons — or 
"whether it is better to continue in the use of the ordinary learning." 
He decides on the whole for the latter course. The fact that Cassio- 
dorus wrote an account of the seven liberal arts shows perhaps that 
he was more benighted in his theory than in his practice. Gregory 
the Great, however, was more consistent and thorough-going. He 



84 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [84 

problem of education was little more than that of securing 
a training sufficient to enable one to read and study the 
Scriptures. The speculation cannot be avoided as to 
whether, if Christianity had depended, like Druidism, on 
an oral tradition, Cassiodorus might not have been willing 
to dispense with education altogether. 

Isidore is the second writer to deal comprehensively with 
the subject-matter of Christian education. Before giving 
an account, however, of the way in which he met the prob- 
lems that were presented to him, it is necessary to glance 
at the educational situation as it then existed in Spain. It 
appears from the enactments of the councils of Toledo in 
the sixth and seventh centuries that the clergy as a body 
were beginning to be concerned for the education of their 
order. 1 An article of the council of 531 directs that as 
soon as children destined for the secular clergy are placed 
under the control of the bishop, " they ought to be edu- 
cated in the house of the church under the direction of the 
bishop by a master appointed for the purpose ". 2 Another 
article 3 says that " those who receive such an education " 

stands as the typical example of extreme illiberality in the history of 
European education. His position is shown in the notorious letter 
addressed to the Bishop of Vienne : " A report has reached us which 
we cannot mention without a blush, that thou expoundest grammar to 
certain friends; whereat we are so offended and filled with scorn 
that our former opinion of thee is turned to mourning and sorrow. 
... If hereafter it be clearly established that the rumor which we 
have heard is false and that thou art not applying thyself to the idle 
vanities of secular learning (nugis et secularibus litteris), we shall 
render thanks to our God." Gregory the Great, Ep. ix. 54. The 
translation is that given in R. Lane-Poole, Medieval Thought. 

1 The second council of Toledo (531) devoted especial attention to 
the subject of preparation for the priesthood. See Mansi, Sacrorum 
Conciliorum Collectio (Florence, J764), vol. 8 {Concilium Toletanum 

2 Mansi, vol. 8, p. 785. 

3 Cap. 2. 



85] ISIDORE'S RELATION TO EDUCATION 85 

should not presume to leave their own church and go to 
another " since it is not fair that a bishop should receive 
or claim a pupil whom another bishop has freed from 
boorish stupidity and the untrained state of infancy ". It 
is further directed that those who were " ignorant of let- 
ters " should not become priests. An article of the fourth 
council of Toledo in 633, at which Isidore probably pre- 
sided, orders that " whoever among the clergy are youths 
should remain in one room of the atrium, in order that they 
may spend the years of the lustful period of their lives not 
in indulgence but in the discipline of the church, being put 
in charge of an older man of the highest character as 
master of their instruction and witness of their life , '. 1 
These passages all refer to cathedral schools, but there is 
evidence equally good of the existence of similar schools 
in the monasteries. 2 Such, then, were the practical condi- 
tions, as far as known, which determined the educational 
activity of Isidore's time. 

The spirit in which Isidore approached the task of fur- 
nishing a comprehensive treatment of the secular subject- 
matter of education was the one proper to his age. He 
held that its place was a subordinate one. He seems to be 
expressing his own and not a borrowed view when he says 
that " grammarians are better than heretics, for heretics 
persuade men to drink a deadly draught, while the learn- 
ing of grammarians can avail for life, if only it is turned to 
better uses ". 3 The same depreciation of the independent 
value of secular studies is reflected in his statement that 
the order of the seven liberal arts in the curriculum was 
one intended to secure a progressive liberation of the mind 
from earthly matters and " to set it at the task of contem- 

1 Mansi, vol. 10, p. 626 (Concilium Toletanum, IV, Cap. 24). 

2 Isidore's Regula Monachorum, 20, 5. 3 See p. 30. 



86 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [g5 

plating things on high f \ 1 He evidently believed that it 
was the function of the seven liberal arts to raise the mind 
from a lower or material to a higher or spiritual plane of 
thought. 2 

In the Etymologies, as has been noticed, Isidore has com- 
bined the encyclopedia of education, as exemplified in the 
works of Martianus Capella and Cassiodorus, and the en- 
cyclopedia of the whole range of knowledge, of which the 
works of Varro, Pliny, and Suetonius are leading ex- 
amples. The first three of the twenty books which are com- 
prised in the Etymologies are evidently educational texts; 
the last twelve as evidently belong to the encyclopedia of 
all knowledge. 3 The question is in which of these divisions 
the intervening books should be classed. If we look to 
Isidore's predecessors for guidance on this point, we find 
that Capella gives only the seven liberal arts, while Cassio- 
dorus gives not only a comprehensive account of prepara- 
tory studies in the form of the seven liberal arts, but adds 
in his De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum a. treatment 
of the higher, or religious, education of the monk. The 
supposition that Isidore followed the example of Cassio- 
dorus is the more natural one. Their educational purpose 

1 Etym., 3, 7h 4*. 

3 To this conception of the time, that the secular side of education 
was a necessary evil, of which a minimum use must be made, the 
school disciplines had in reality been adapting themselves for cen- 
turies by their growing formalism and loss of content. Among the 
seven liberal arts rhetoric is the best example of the former charac- 
teristic. It was so purely conventional a discipline in Isidore's time 
that, even though he wrote of it, he confesses that it made no im- 
pression on him, either good or bad. " When it is laid aside," he says, 
" all recollection vanishes." The loss of content, on the other hand, 
is best seen in Isidore's account of the four mathematical sciences, 
especially in that of geometry, which consists of nothing more than a 
few definitions. 
1 See p. 31 for outline of contents. 



87] ISIDORE'S RELATION TO EDUCATION 87 

was much the same: Cassiodorus had in mind the train- 
ing of the monk, while Isidore was concerned with the 
education of the priest. It is, all things considered, more 
natural to suppose that Isidore is giving in Books I-VIII 
of his Etymologies a comprehensive survey of the educa- 
tion of the secular clergy, than to suppose that his educa- 
tional texts stopped short at the end of the seven liberal 
arts. 

If this supposition is correct, the outline of this survey 
is as follows: Grammar (Bk. I), Rhetoric and Dialectic 
(Bk. II), Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy (Bk. 
Ill), Medicine (Bk. IV), Laws and Times (Bk. V), the 
books and services of the church (Bk. VI), God, the angels, 
and the orders of the faithful (Bk. VII), the church and 
the different sects (Bk. VIII). The inclusion of medicine, 
law, and chronology, which were not in the corresponding 
plan of Cassiodorus, 1 meant merely an enlargement of his 
scheme to fit it for the slightly different purpose which 
Isidore had in mind. The reason for the inclusion of these 
subjects is the practical one: in the absence of any other 
educated class priests were obliged to have some slight 
knowledge of medicine and law, while the intricacy of the 
church calendar of the time made chronology a profes- 
sional necessity. 

At first sight this plan of educational subjects would 
seem to be at variance with our accepted idea that the seven 
liberal arts covered the whole field of preparatory train- 
ing. A closer examination shows, however, that in form 
at least Isidore kept them in a class by themselves; and 

1 However, Cassiodorus had in the De Institutione Divinarum Litter- 
arum a chapter entitled " On monks having the care of the infirm ". 
In this he urged upon them the reading of a number of medical works 
(those of Dioscorides, Hippocrates, Galen, Caelius Aurelianus, and 
"various others". Migne, P. L., 70, 1146). 



88 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [88 

when he passes from them to medicine he is careful to 
specify that it is not one of the liberal arts, but forms a 
" second philosophy ".* By this he means that medicine — 
and the same may be assumed for laws and times — is 
placed in the higher and not the preparatory stage of educa- 
tion, and that in this sphere it plays a minor part. 

If, then, this view of the subject-matter of the first eight 
books of the Etymologies is correct, it will be admitted that 
in Isidore's organization of education a significant step has 
been taken. In the education of the Greek and Roman 
world there was nothing to parallel the medieval and mod- 
ern university development, which has been characterized 
until recently by the three professional schools of law, 
medicine, and theology. In Isidore's plan we have, for the 
first time, as professional studies, first, what corresponds 
to the later theology, and, in subordination to this, the sub- 
jects of law, medicine and chronology. It is evident, there- 
fore, that we have here in embryo, as it were, the organiza- 
tion of the medieval university ; law and medicine have only 
to be secularized and freed from their subordination to 
theology, and the medieval university in its complete form 
appears. 

1 4, 13. See also p. 163. 



PART II 
THE ETYMOLOGIES 



BOOK I 
ON GRAMMAR 

INTRODUCTION 



Grammar did not appear as a separate body of knowl- 
edge until a late period in the Greek civilization. The 
merest ground- work of the science had sufficed to meet all 
the demands of education, of philosophy, and of a litera- 
ture in course of production; for its development it was 
necessary to await a period of literary criticism. When 
the Alexandrian scholars began to compare the idiom of 
Homer with that of their own day, the requisite stimulus 
for the scientific study of language was given, and gram- 
mar may be regarded as dating from the Alexandrian age. 

What was at that time termed grammar, ypafifmrucfj, 
included far more than the modern science; it was the 
study of literature at large. The grammarian might have 
nothing to do with what we call grammar, but be a stu- 
dent of textual criticism or mythology. Any sort of study 
undertaken for the purpose of elucidating the poets was 
grammatical. Like the modern professor of literature, the 
only invariable characteristic of the grammarian was his 
literary point of view. 1 

The grammatical studies of the Romans were patterned 

1 See Sandvs. History of Classical Scholarship, pp. 6-10. 
&>] 89 



90 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [q Q 

closely after those of the Greeks; the Greek terminology 
and organization of the science were adopted without 
change. The Roman interest in the subject was no doubt 
heightened by the fact that the Roman culture was a bi- 
lingual one ; thus a broad basis for the study was furnished, 
and naturally much attention was given to the derivation 
of words. A large number of scholarly works was pro- 
duced, and the inferiority of the borrowed Roman culture 
is perhaps less noticeable in this department than in any 
other. 

It was inevitable that this ' grammar ', in a condensed 
form, should come to be used in common education. Its 
outlines, however, were rather vague, and many of its 
departments did not lend themselves to the concise state- 
ment necessary in a text-book. The first Greek school 
grammar, the re^ ypa^ariK^ * of Dionysius Thrax, which 
was destined to be the basis of all the school grammars of 
antiquity, appeared about 80 B. C. It is noticeable that 
although the definition of grammar that is given 2 is the 
definition of the grammar of the scholars, the subjects 
actually treated are little more than the parts of speech. It 
was natural that there should be this gap between promise 
and performance. For a long time no doubt this mere out- 
line was filled in by the oral interpretation of the master- 

1 It is still in existence. The best text is that of Uhlig, 1883 (Leip- 
zig). 

2 " Grammar is a practical knowledge of the usages of language as 
generally current among poets and prose writers. It is divided into 
six parts: (1) trained reading with due regard to prosody; (2) ex- 
planation according to poetical figures; (3) ready statement of dia- 
lectical peculiarities and allusions; (4) discovery of etymology; (5) 
an accurate account of analogies; (6) criticism of poetical produc- 
tions, which is the noblest part of grammatic art." The Grammar of 
Dionysius Thrax, translated by T. Davidson (St. Louis, 1874), p. 3. In 
contrast to this definition the body of the work is devoted to reading, 
punctuation, the alphabet, syllables, and the parts of speech. 



91 j ON GRAMMAR g 1 

pieces in the manner of the scholars; but when these ceased 
to be studied, in the early medieval period, the study of 
grammar was confined to the material offered in the text- 
books. 1 

The first of the Romans to produce a school grammar 
was Remmius Palaemon, who flourished in the first half 
of the first century. He had many successors in the later 
centuries of the Roman Empire, and the literary tradition 
of the school grammar continued unbroken into the Middle 
Ages. The most influential exponent of the subject was 
Aelius Donatus, whose Ars, written in the fourth century, 
was used throughout the Middle Ages. The chief writers 
of grammatical texts in the centuries preceding Isidore 
were Victorinus, Donatus, Diomedes, Charisius, and Mar- 
tianus Capella in the fourth ; Consentius and Phocas in the 
fifth; and Cassiodorus in the sixth. No new contribu- 
tions were being made to the science, and these writers had 
no other resource than to copy their predecessors, which 
they did in a slavish manner. 2 The verbal similarity in all 
of them is so strong that it is impossible to trace with cer- 
tainty the immediate source of any one of the later writers. 

1 The older definition or its substance was still retained, however. 
See p. 97. Its retention is rather an evidence of conservatism than a 
proof of the continued study of the poets. 

2 The following list of passages gives some idea of the way in which 
grammatical works were produced in this age. 

Vox sive sonus est aer ictus, id est percussus, sensibilis auditu 
quantum in ipso est. Probi, Instituta Artium in Keil, Grammatici 
Latini, vol. vi, p. 4, 13. 

Vox est aer ictus sensibilis auditu, quantum in ipso est. Donati, 
Ars Grammatica. Ibid., vol. iv, p. 367, 5. 

Vox est aer ictus sensibilis auditu, verbis emissa, et exacta sensus 
prolatio. Sergii, Explanationum in artem Donati, Liber I.. Ibid., vol. 
iv, p. 487, 4- 

Vox est aer auditu percipibilis quantum in ipso est. Marius Victor- 
inus, Ars Grammatica. Ibid., vol. vi, p. 4, 13. 

Vox quid est? Aer ictus sensibilisque auditu quantum in ipso est. 
Maximus Victorinus, Ars Grammatica. Ibid., vol. vi, p. 189, 8. 



92 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [g 2 

Isidore's account of grammar is of somewhat more than 
the average length 1 found in these text-books, but its lack 
of solid substance, in which it differs from the books of the 
fourth century, measures the decline in intellectual grasp 
and thoroughness of the two intervening centuries. Dona- 
tus, Servius, and even Capella, stick closely to the technique 
of the subject and are thorough-going; their books are cal- 
culated to afford a severe discipline to the student. But 
in Isidore a feebleness in handling the subject is evident; 
he is apparently unaware of the superior importance of 
such subjects as conjugation and declension, and he is very 
easily led into confusion by the trains of thought suggested 
by his frequent derivations. 2 

analysis 3 
A. Introductory. 

i. Definition of ars and disciplina (ch. i). 
2. Definition of the seven liberal arts (ch. 2). 

Vox articulata est aer percussus sensibilis auditu quantum in ipso 
est. Cassiodorus, Institutio de Arte Grammatica. Ibid., vol. vii, p. 
215, 4- 

Vox est aer ictus sensibilis auditu, quantum in ipso est. Isidore, 
Etymologiae, 1, 15. 

These grammars are almost altogether made up of definitions which 
had become stereotyped. 

1 The greater length of his treatment is due to the fact that he in- 
cludes more subjects than do the preceding writers of text-books. A 
comparison of his table of contents with those of Cassiodorus, Mar- 
tianus Capella, Donatus, and Servius shows that he professes to cover 
much more than they ; he has ten topics that do not appear in Donatus' 
Ars Grammatica, and a greater number that do not appear in Servius, 
Capella, or Cassiodorus. 

2 See especially his definition of verbum, 1, 9, 1. 

3 The analysis is meant to indicate briefly the formal organization 
of the subject. It is followed by selected passages in translation, 
which, while illustrating the technical treatment, are meant rather to 
give what is of more general interest. It must be remembered that this 
treatment by selected passages fails to give a just idea of the meager- 
ness, attenuation, and confusion of the material considered as a whole. 



93] ON GRAMMAR 93 

3. The Hebrew and Greek alphabets (ch. 3). 

4. The Latin alphabet (ch. 4). 
B. Grammar. 

1. Definition and divisions x (ch. 5). 

2. Parts of speech (chs. 6-14). 

a. de nomine (ch. 7). 

Propria (four sub-classes of proper nouns are 
given). 

Appellativa (twenty-eight sub-classes of com- 
mon nouns are given). 

Nominis comparatio (comparison of adjec- 
tives). 

Genera (genders). 

Numerus. 

Fignra (simple and compound nouns). 

Casus. 2 

b. de pronomine* (ch. 8). 

c. de verbo (ch. 9). 

Formae (desiderative, inchoative and frequen- 
tative verbs). 

Modi (indicative, imperative, optative, con- 
junctive, infinitive, impersonal). 

Conjugationes. 4 

Genera (active, passive, neuter, common, and 
deponent verbs). 

d. de adverbio 5 (ch. 10). 

1 See p. 97. 

2 A set of terms unfamiliar to the modern student of grammar is 
given under this head. Nouns having six distinct case-forms are 
called hexaptota; those having five, pentaptota, and so on. See 1, 
7, 33- 

3 Pronouns are classified according to use into Unita, iniinita, minus 
quam Unita, possessiva, relativa, demonstrative ; and according to 
origin into primigenia and deductiva. 

4 Three conjugations are given. 

6 Note part of the definition : " Adverbium autem sine verbo non 



94 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 94 

e. de participio (the participle) (ch. n). 

f. de conjunctione (ch. 12). 

g. de praepositionibus (ch. 13). 
h. de inter jectione (ch. 14). 

3. Articulate speech (ch. 15). 

4. The syllable (ch. 16). 

5. Metrical feet 1 (ch. 17). 

6. Accent 2 (chs. 18, 19). 

7. Punctuation (ch. 20). 

8. Signs and abbreviations (Notae) (chs. 21-26). 

a. Notae sententiarum (critical marks used in 
manuscripts). 

b. Notae vnlgares (short-hand). 

c. Notae militares (abbreviations used in mili- 
tary rolls). 

d. Notae litterarum (cipher-writing). 

e. Notae digit or um (sign language). 

9. Orthography (ch. 27). 

10. Analogy 5 (ch. 28). 

11. Etymology (ch. 29). 

habet plenam significationem, ut hodie : adjicis i Hi verbum, hodie 
scribo, et juncto verbo implesti sensum." 1, 10, 1. 

1 Isidore asserts that there are one hundred and twenty-four sorts 
of metrical feet, " four of two syllables, eight of three, sixteen of 
four, thirty-two of five, sixty-four of six." 1, 17, 1. 

2 The ten so-called accents of the grammarians are described : the 
acute, the grave, the circumflex, the marks to indicate long and short 
vowels, the hyphen, the comma, the apostrophe, the rough and smooth 
breathing. 

3 This section is to be explained by reference to the chief contro- 
versy in the history of the science of grammar in classical times, that 
between analogy and anomaly, or whether grammatical regularity or 
irregularity was the more basic phenomenon. In Capella's grammar 
analogia is the heading under which declensions of nouns and con- 
jugations of verbs are given, while exceptions are grouped under the 
heading anomola. See Martianus Capella, Eyssenhardt, pp. 75-97- 
Also Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, Index. 



95] ON GRAMMAR 95 

12. Glosses (ch. 30). 

13. Synonyms (ch. 31). 

14. Barbarisms, solecisms 1 and other faults 2 (chs. 32- 

34). 

15. Metaplasms (poetic license in changing the forms of 

words (ch. 35). 

16. Schemata (rhetorical figures) (ch. 36). 

17. Tropes 3 (ch. 37)- 

18. Prose (ch. 38). 

19. Metres 4 (ch. 39). 

20. The fable (ch. 40). 

21. History (chs. 41-44). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 2. On the seven liberal arts. 5 

1. The disciplines belonging to the liberal arts are seven. 
First, grammar, that is, practical knowledge of speech. Sec- 
ond, rhetoric, which is considered especially necessary in civil 
causes because of the brilliancy and copiousness of its elo- 
quence. Third, dialectic, called also logic, which separates 
truth from falsehood by the subtlest distinctions. 

2. Fourth, arithmetic, which includes the significance and 
the divisions of numbers. Fifth, music, which consists of 
poems and songs. 

1 Solecism is "the failure to put words together according to the 
correct method ", while barbarism includes blunders in the use of 
single words. 1, 33, 1. 

2 Chiefly a parade of long words, like perissologia, macrologia, tapi- 
nosis, cacosyntheton, etc 1, 34. 

8 A large number of poetical figures are described. This section is 
probably nothing but an evidence of conservatism, since Isidore cer- 
tainly did not include a study of the poets in his scheme of education. 

* A number of metres are described and some attention is given to 
different kinds of poetry, such as the elegiac, bucolic, hymn, cento, etc. 

5 Du Breul has disciplinis, not artibus. 



96 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [gg 

3. Sixth, geometry, which embraces measurements and di- 
mensions. Seventh, astronomy, which contains the law of the 

stars. 

Chapter 3. On the ordinary letters. 

1. The foundations of the grammatic art are the ordinary 
letters, which elementary teachers x are occupied with, instruc- 
tion in which is, as it were, the infancy of the grammatic art. 
Whence Varro calls it litteratio. Letters are signs of things, 
symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a 
voice they speak to us the words of the absent ; for they intro- 
duce words by the eye, not by the ear. 

2. The use of the letters was invented in order to remember 
things. For things are fettered by letters in order that they 
may not escape through forgetfulness. For in such a variety 
of things all could not be learned by hearing and held in the 
memory. 

4. Latin and Greek letters have evidently come from the 
Hebrew. For among the latter aleph was first so named ; then 
[judging] by the similarity of sound it was transmitted to the 
Greeks as alpha; likewise to the Latins as a. For the bor- 
rower fashioned the letter of the second language according to 
similarity of sound, so that we can know that the Hebrew 
language is the mother of all languages and alphabets. 2 

7. The letter t Pythagoras of Samos first made, after the 
model of human life, whose lower stem denotes the first of 
life, which is unsettled and has not yet devoted itself to the 
vices or the virtues. The double part which is above, begins 
in youth; of which the right side is steep, but leads to the 
blessed life; the left is easier, but leads down to ruin and 
destruction. . . . 

8. Among the Greeks there are five mystic letters. 3 The 
first is T, which denotes human life, of which we have just 

1 Librarii et calculatores. 

2 From Jerome, ad Soph., in Migne, Pair. Lat., 6, 7, 30. 

3 This sentence, as many others, is in the accusative and infinitive 
without any governing verb. 



97] ON GRAMMAR gy 

spoken. The second is e, which denotes death. For judges 
used to place this letter, theta, at the names of those whom 
they condemned to death ; and it is called theta and rot- davdrov, 
i. e., from death. Whence also it has a weapon through its 
middle, i. e., the sign of death. Of which a certain one speaks 
thus: 

O multum ante alias infelix littera theta! 
9. The third is t", indicating the shape of the cross of the 
Lord. . . . The remaining two, the first and the last, Christ 
claims for himself. For he is himself the beginning, himself 
the end, saying: "I am a and «," for they pass into one 
another in turn, and alpha passes in regular succession to u 
and again u returns to alpha; in order that the Lord might 
show in himself that he was the way from the beginning to 
the end and from the end to the beginning. 

Chapter 4. On the Latin alphabet. 

17. The nations gave the names of the letters in accordance 
with the sound in their own language, noting and distinguish- 
ing the sounds of the voice. After they had noted them, they 
gave them names and forms; and they made the forms in 
part at pleasure, in part according to the sound of the letters ; 
as, for example, i and o, of which one has a slender stem, just 
as it has a thin sound; the sound of the other is gross 
(pinguis), just as its form is full. 

Chapter 5. On grammar. 

1. Grammar is the science of speaking correctly, and is the 
source and foundation of literature. 1 This one of the disci- 
plines was discovered next after the ordinary letters, so that 
those who have already learned the letters may learn by it the 
method of speaking correctly. Grammar took its name from 
letters, for the Greeks call letters ypafifiara. 

4. The divisions of the grammatic art are enumerated by 
certain authorities as thirty; namely, eight parts of speech, 
the articulate voice, the letter, the syllable, metrical feet, ac- 
cent, marks of punctuation, signs and abbreviations, orthog- 

1 Liberalium litterarum. 



98 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [gg 

raphy, analogy, etymology, glosses, synonyms, barbarisms, 
solecisms, [other] faults, metaplasms, schemata, tropes, prose, 
metres, fables, histories. 

Chapter 6. On the parts of speech. 

i. Aristotle first taught two parts of speech, the noun and 
the verb. Then Donatus defined eight. But all revert to these 
two chief ones, that is, to the noun and the verb, which indi- 
cate the person and the act. The remainder are appendages, 
and trace their origin to these. 

2. For the pronoun arises from the noun and performs its 
function, as orator, Me. The adverb arises from the noun, as 
doctus, docte. The participle from the noun and verb, as 
lego, leg ens. But the conjunction and preposition and inter- 
jection are included in those mentioned. 1 Many therefore 
have defined five parts because these are superfluous. 

Chapter 21. On critical marks (notae sententiarum) . 

I. In addition there were certain marks in the writings of 
celebrated authors, which the ancients set in poems and his- 
tories to discriminate among the passages. A mark is a 
separate form placed like a letter, to indicate some judgment 
about a word, thought or verse. There are twenty-six marks 
used in annotating verses, which are enumerated below with 
their names. 2 

Chapter 22. On shorthand. 

1. Ennius 3 first invented 1,100 shorthand signs. The use 
of the signs was that scribes wrote whatever was said in 
public meeting or in court, several standing by at one time and 
deciding among themselves how many words and in what 
order each should write. At Rome Tullius Tiro, Cicero's 
freedman, was the first to invent shorthand, but only for 
prepositions. 4 

1 In complexum istarum cadunt. 

2 See Etym., 1, 21, 2-28. 
5 The grammarian. 

K Notas sed tantum praepositionum. Probably abbreviations for 
prepositions and other connectives that were in frequent use. 



99] ON GRAMMAR 99 

2. After him Vipsanius Philargius and Aquila, Maecenas's 
freedman, each added a number of signs. Then Seneca, col- 
lecting them all and arranging them and increasing their num- 
ber, raised the total to 5,000. The signs (notae) are so-called 
because they denote words or syllables by marks, 1 and bring 
them again to the notice of readers, and they who have learned 
them are now properly called notarii. 

Chapter 27. On orthography. 

1. Orthography is Greek, and it means in the Latin correct 
writing; for bpdrj in the Greek means correct, and ypa^ 
means writing. This branch of knowledge teaches us how we 
ought to write. For as the art 2 treats of the inflection of the 
parts of speech, so orthography deals with the knowledge of 
writing, as, for example, 

ad, when it is a preposition, takes the letter d; when it is a 
conjunction, the letter t. 

2. Hand, when it is an adverb of negation, is terminated by 
the letter d and is aspirated at the beginning; but when it is 
a conjunction, it is written with the letter t and is without as- 
piration. 

7. Forsitan ought to be written with n at the end, because 
its uncorrupted form is forte si tandem. 

Chapter 29. On etymology. 

1. Etymology is the derivation of words, 3 when the force 
of a verb or a noun is ascertained through interpretation. 
This Aristotle called cv/upoiov, and Cicero, notatio, because it 
explains the names of things ; 4 as, for example, Humeri is 
so called from fluere, because it arose from flowing. 

2. A knowledge of etymology is often necessary in inter- 
pretation, for, when you see whence a name has come, you 
grasp its force more quickly. For every consideration of a 

1 Praefixis characteribus. 

2 Among the seven liberal arts grammar is the art par excellence. 

3 Cf. Quint Man, 1, 6, 28. 

* Quia nomina et verba rerum nota facit 



IOO ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ IOO 

thing is clearer when its etymology is known. Not all names, 
however, were given by the ancients in accordance with 
nature, but certain also according to whim, just as we some- 
times give slaves and estates names according to our fancy. 

3. Hence it is that the etymologies of some names are not 
found, since certain things have received their name not ac- 
cording to the quality in which they originated, but according 
to man's arbitrary choice. Etymologies are given in accord- 
ance with cause, as reges from regere, that is, recte agere; 
or origin, as homo because he is from the earth {humus) ; or 
from contraries, as lutum (mud) from lavare — since mud is 
not clean — and lucus (sacred grove), because being shady it 
has little light (parum luceat). 

4. Certain words also were formed by derivation from 
other words; as prudens from prudentia. Certain also from 
cries, as graculus (jackdaw) from garrulitas. Certain also 
have sprung from a Greek origin, and have changed over 
into the Latin, as silva, 1 domus. 

5. Other things have derived their names from the names 
of places, cities, or rivers. Many also are drawn from the 
languages of foreign peoples ; whence their derivation is per- 
ceived with difficulty; for there are many barbarous words 
unknown to the Greeks and Latins. 

Chapter 32. On barbarism. 

1. Barbarism is the uttering of a word with an error in a 
letter or in a quantity : a letter, as floriet, when Horebit is cor- 
rect ; a quantity, if the first syllable is prolonged instead of the 
middle one, as latebrae, tenebrae. And it is called barbarism 
from the barbarian peoples, since they were ignorant of the 
purity of Latin speech ; for each nation becoming subject to 
the Romans, transmitted to Rome along with their wealth 
their faults, both of speech and of morals. 

Chapter 37. On tropes. 

1. Tropes are so named by the grammarians from a Greek 
word which in Latin means modi locutionum. They are 

1 Cf. 17, 6, 5, where silva (xilva) is derived f rom ^~kov (wood). 



IOi] ON GRAMMAR IOI 

turned from their own meaning to a kindred meaning that is 
not their own. And it is very difficult to comment on the 
names of them all, but Donatus gave for practice a list of thir- 
teen selected from the whole number. 

2. Metaphor is the assumption of a transfer of meaning in 
some word, as when we say segetes Huctuare (the grain-fields 
billow), vites gemmare, when we do not find any waves or 
gems in these things, but the words are transferred from the 
old application to a new one. These and other tropical forms 
of speech are veiled with figurative cloaks with reference to 
the things to be understood, with the view that they may ex- 
ercise the intelligence of the reader, and may not be cheap 
because they are unadorned and easily apprehended 

22. Allegory is the saying of things that do not belong to 
the matter in hand (alienoloquium) , for one thing is said, an- 
other is understood; as, tres in littore cervos conspicit errantes, 
where the three leaders of the Punic war, or the three Punic 
wars are indicated; and in the Bucolics, aurea mala decern 
misi, i. e., ten pastoral eclogues to Augustus. There are many 
species of this figure, of which seven are conspicuous : irony, 
antiphrasis, enigma, charientismus, paroemia, sarcasmus, 
astysmus. 

23. It is irony where the thought is given a contrary mean- 
ing by the manner of speech. By this figure something is 
said cleverly, either in the way of accusation or insult, as the 
following : 

Vestras, Eure, domos, ilia se jactet in aula 
Aeolus, et clauso ventorum carcere regnet. 

And why aula (palace) if it is career (prison) ! It is made 
clear by the manner of speech, for the manner of speech says 
career. Jactet in aula is irony, and the whole is expressed 
in a contradictory manner of speech by the figure of irony 
which mocks by praising. 

24. Antiphrasis is language to be understood to the con- 
trary, as, lucus (sacred grove), since it is without light (lux) 
because of the excessive gloom of the woods. . . . 



102 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I02 

25. Between irony and antiphrasis there is this difference, 
that irony indicates by the manner of speaking alone what is 
meant, as when we say to a man doing ill, " Bonum est quod 
facis ". But antiphrasis indicates the contrary not by the 
voice of the speaker, but only in the words, whose derivation 
is the opposite [of their meaning]. 

Chapter 39. On metres. 

4. Whatever is measured by verse feet is a poem (carmen). 
It is thought that the name was given because it was pro- 
nounced rhythmically (carptim), or . . . because they who 
sang such things were supposed to be out of their minds 
(mente car ere). 

9. . . . [The hexameter] excels the rest of the metres in 
authority, being alone of them all fitted as well to the greatest 
tasks as to the small, and with an equal capacity for sweet- 
ness and delight. ... It is also older than the other metres. 
It is proved that Moses was the first to use it in the song of 
Deuteronomy, long before Pherecydes and Homer. Whence 
also it is evident that the making of poems was older among 
the Hebrews than among the nations. Since Job, too, who 
goes back as far as Moses, sang in hexameter verse, [using] 
the dactyl and the spondee. 

12. Hecataeus of Miletus is said to have been the first 
among the Greeks to compose this metre; or, as others think, 
Pherecydes of Syros, and this metre before Homer was called 
Pythian, after Homer, heroic. 

17. It is manifest that David the prophet was the first to 
compose and sing hymns in praise of God. Later among the 
nations Timothoe who (quae) lived in the time of Ennius, 
long after David, wrote the first hymns in honor of Apollo 
and the Muses. Hymni is translated from the Greek to the 
Latin as laudes. 

25. Among grammarians they are wont to be called centones 
who [take] from the poems of Homer and Virgil with a view 
to their own works, and put together in patchwork fashion 
many bits found here and there to suit each subject. 



1 03] ON GRAMMAR io ^ 

26. Proba, wife of Adelphos, composed at great length a 
cento from Virgil about the structure of the universe and the 
gospels, 1 the subject-matter being made up verse by verse, 
and the verses being arranged appropriately to suit the sub- 
ject-matter. And a certain Pomponius, among other poems 
(otia) of his own pen, wrote Tityrus from the same poet in 
honor of Christ. 

Chapter 41. On history. 

1. History is the story of what has been done, and by its 
means what has taken place in the past is perceived. It is 
called in the Greek historia, and tov loTopeiw that is from seeing 
(videre) and learning (cognoscere). For among the ancients 
no one wrote history unless he had been present and witnessed 
what was to be described. For we understand what we see 
better than we do what we gather by hearsay. 

2. For what is seen is told without lying. This discipline 
belongs to grammar because whatever is worth remembering 
is entrusted to letters. . . . 

Chapter 42. On the first writers of history. 

1. Moses was the first among us to write a history of the 
beginning of the world. Among the nations Dares Phrygius 
was the first to publish a history of the Greeks and Trojans, 
which they say was written by him on palm-leaves. 

2. And after Dares, Herodotus is considered the first his- 
torian in Greece. After whom Pherecydes was famous, at 
the time when Esdras wrote the law. 

Chapter 43. On the usefulness of history. 

1. Histories of the heathen do no harm to their readers 
where they tell what is useful. For many wise men have put 
past deeds into their histories for the instruction of the 
present. 

2. Besides, in history the total reckoning of past times and 
years is embraced and many necessary matters are examined 
in the light of the succession of consuls and kings. 

1 De Fabrica mundi et Evangeliis. 



104 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 1Q 4 

Chapter 44. On the sorts of history. 

1. There are three sorts of history. The doings of one day 
are called ephemeris. Among us this name is diarium. . . . 

2. What is arranged according to separate months is called 
kalendaria. 

3. Annates are the deeds of the years, one by one. For 
whatever was related in the commentaries from year to year 
as worthy of memory, in peace and war, by sea and land, they 
named annals from the deeds of a year. 

4. But history is a thing of many years or times, and 
through diligence in it the yearly commentaries are put into 
books. Between history and annals there is this difference, 
that history belongs to the times which we see, and annals 
belong to years which our age does not know. Whence Sallust 
is made up of history ; Livy, Eusebius and Hieronymous of 
annals and history. 



BOOK II 
ON RHETORIC 

INTRODUCTION 

Rhetoric held a position in the ancient world that the 
modern reader has difficulty in understanding. Democratic 
government, including the popular administration of jus- 
tice, at a time when all discussion was necessarily oral, 
created an ideal condition in Athens and the other Greek 
states for the development of oratory. In the life of the 
Roman republic, too, there was enough of the popular ele- 
ment to make public speaking of the greatest importance. 
The art of rhetoric was therefore in close touch with the 
real interests of life. It was not merely a school discipline, 
but a preparation for a definite activity that held a high 
place in the esteem of the people, and it embodied a set of 
sensible ideas on public speaking in which the tendency to 
over-elaboration and artificiality characteristic of scholastic 
disciplines was kept in check by the wholesome influences 
that came from practical application. 

With the establishment of the Roman Empire public 
discussion of political matters quickly disappeared, and 
forensic oratory for the same reason tended to decline. 
Thus the chief element which had given vitality to ancient 
rhetoric was eliminated. Roman oratory, however, died 
hard. It nursed itself on various pretences and shows. 
Much of the old interest in oratory turned back on rhetoric, 
which was thus exposed to a double danger, as an educa- 
tional discipline that had lost connection with practical life 
105] 105 



106 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I0 6 

and as a subject that had become too fashionable. When 
once the new influence had gained headway a strong ten- 
dency to artificiality was revealed. Rhetoric became scho- 
lastic and ridiculously overburdened with classification and 
terminology; it grew more lifeless as it grew more sys- 
tematic. Interest then gradually subsided. Treatises grew 
shorter and drier, and consisted largely of long lists of 
terms defined without critical understanding of their mean- 
ing. The subject now held its place by the mere force of 
authority. 

This was the state of rhetoric in Isidore's time, and his 
treatment reflects the condition to which it had been re- 
duced. He says that " it is easy for the reader to admire 
but impossible to understand " the books on rhetoric, and, 
further, that when they are laid aside " all recollection van- 
ishes." From a writer with this attitude little need be ex- 
pected. His few miserable pages, compared with Quin- 
tilian's interesting treatise, measure fully the decline of 
rhetoric during the first six centuries A. D. What Isidore 
gives is merely a summary, so cursory and disjointed that it 
frequently cannot be understood without liberal reference 
to the fuller treatises of his predecessors. 

In Isidore's De Rhetorica practically the whole of Cas- 
siodorus' text-book on this subject is incorporated without 
acknowledgment. Two authorities, Victorinus and Cicero, 
are quoted, 1 but on referring to Cassiodorus it becomes 

1 Isidore, Etym., 2, 19, 14, " Praeterea secundum Victorinum enthy- 
mematis est altera defmitio. Ex sola propositione, sicut jam dictum 
est, ita constat. ' Si tempestas vitanda est, non est navigatio requi- 
renda.' " 

Cassiodorus, De Rhet. Halm, Rhetores Latini, p. 500. " Praeterea 
secundum Victorinum enthymematis est altera definitio. Ex sola 
propositione. sicut jam dictum est, ita constat enthymema, ut est illud : 
' si tempestas vitanda est, non est navigatio requirenda.' " 

Isidore, Etym., 2, 9, 18. " Hunc Cicero ita f acit in arte rhetorica." 

Cass, in Halm, p. 500, 18. " Hunc Cicero facit in arte rhetorica." 



107] 0N RHETORIC l0 y 

plain that even here Isidore is merely copying his author- 
ity's citation of authority. However his brief chapter on 
law cannot be paralleled in any extant treatise before his 
time and its insertion must be credited to his initiative. 



I. Definition (ch. i). 
II. Chief writers (ch. 2). 

III. Divisons (ch. 3). 

1. Inventio. 

2. Dispositio. 

3. Elocutio. 

4. Memoria. 

5. Pronuntiatio. 

IV. The three kinds of cases (ch. 4). 

1. Deliberativitm. 2 

2. Demonstrativum. 3 

3. Judiciale? 

1 The analytical treatment of this subject is obviously carried to an 
absurd degree. The whole activity of the orator is analyzed into five 
parts: inventio, dispositio, elocutio (wording), memoria, pronuntiatio. 
The whole subject-matter is analyzed into three parts: deliberative, 
epideictic, forensic. All court cases are analyzed from the point of 
view of the defence, according to status, that is, according to the 
nature of the leading point in the case. The speech itself (oratio) 
is analyzed into four parts : introduction, narrative, argument and con- 
clusion. All cases are analyzed again according to the psychological 
impression they make on the audience. All arguments are analyzed 
into regular and irregular syllogisms. Even negation, giving the lie, 
is analyzed into several sorts. Rhetorical figures are analyzed elab- 
orately. 

2 " In which there is discussion of what ought or ought not to be 
done in regard to any of the practical affairs of life." 2, 4, 1. The 
genus deliberativum is divided into suasio and dissuasio, and each of 
these again, under the three headings, honestum, utile, possibile. 

8 Epideictic ; divided into laus and vituperatio, 2, 4. 
* Forensic rhetoric. 



Io8 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I0 g 

V. The two-fold status of cases 1 (ch. 5). 
1. Rationalis. 

a. Conjectural 

b. Finis. 3 

(1) Juridicialis. 4 

(a) Absolut a. 5 

(b) Assumptiva. 6 
(a) Concession 

Purgatio* 
Deprecatio* 

1 Under this heading we have the chief effort of ancient rhetoric 
to be helpful to the defense in cases brought before the courts. The 
term status meant the crucial point in a case, and its subdivisions are 
intended to include the chief kinds of crucial points upon which the 
advocate must base his speech. The inference in both Isidore and 
Cassiodorus is that there is only one status in a case, but Quintilian 
(3, 6, 21) expressly says that there are more than one, and that the 
chief status in a case " is the strongest point in it on which the whole 
matter chiefly turns." 

In this section Isidore borrows from Cassiodorus almost without 
change in the wording. In one case he has made a serious blunder in 
copying: the subdivisions that Cassiodorus places under qualitas, Isi- 
dore has placed under finis. (Cass., De Rhet., Halm, p. 496.) 

2 " When an act that is imputed to a person is denied by another " 
(2, 5, 3), and the balancing of evidence is the method of deciding. 

3 " When it is maintained that the act that is the matter of accusation 
is not that [specified], and its nature is shown by the use of defini- 
tions." 2, 5, 3. 

* " In which the nature of justice and right and the abstract grounds 
of reward and punishment are gone into." 2, 5, 5. 

5 Term left undefined. 

6 " Which of itself offers no satisfactory ground for defence but 
seeks for defence beyond its own limits." 2, 5, 5. 

7 " When the accused does not deny the act but demands that it be 
pardoned." 2, 5, 6. 

8 " When the deed is confessed but guilt is denied " on the ground 
of ignorance, accident, or necessity. 2, 5, 8. 

9 " When the accused confesses that he has committed the wrong 
and has done so purposely, and still demands that he be pardoned, 
which kind can be of very rare occurrence." 2, 5, 8. 



109] 0N RHETORIC l0 g 

(b) Remotio criminis. 1 

(c) Relatio criminis. 2 

(d) Comparatio* 
(2) Negotialis.* 

c. Qualitas. 5 

d. Translation 
2. Legalis. 

a. Scriptum et voluntas. 1 

b. Leges contrariae. 8 

c. Ambiguitas. 9 

d. Collection 

e. Deflnitio legalis. 11 

1 " When the accused endeavors energetically to divert the charge 
made against him from himself and his guilt to another." 2, 5, 6. 

2 " When it is urged that there is justification because another had 
committed a wrong before." 2, 5, 7. 

3 " When some other honorable or expedient act of another is 
alleged, for the accomplishing of which the act specified in the accu- 
sation is asserted to have been done." 2, 5, 7. 

* " In which there is discussion of what is just in view of civil cus- 
tom and equity." 2, 5, 5. 

5 " When the nature of the case is inquired into ; and since the dis- 
pute is concerned with the real meaning and classification of the 
matter at stake, this is called the constitutio generalis." 2, 5, 3. This 
is the general heading under which all the sub-heads classified under 
iinis should have been placed. Isidore made a mistake in copying 
from Cassiodorus, in whom the classification is correct. 

6 " When the case depends on this, that it is not the proper person 
who brings the action, or that it is not before the proper court, at the 
proper time, according to the proper law, charging the proper crime, 
demanding the proper punishment." 2, 5, 4. 

17 " When the words seem to be at variance with the intention of the 
writer." 2, 5, 9. 

3 " When two or more laws are perceived to be in conflict with one 
another." 2, 5, 9. 

9 " When what is written seems to have two or more meanings." 
2, 5, 10. 

10 « When from what is written another thing also which is not 
written is inferred." 2, 5, 10. 

11 " When inquiry is made as to what is the force of a word." 2, 
5. 10. 



IIO ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ IIO 

VI. The three-fold division of controversies 1 (ch. 6). 

1. Simple. 

2. Compound. 

3. Complex. 

VII. The four parts of a speech 2 (ch. 7). 

1. Exordium. 

2. Narratio. 

3. Argumentatio. 

4. Conclusio. 

VIII. The five modes of cases s (ch. 8). 

1. Honestum. 

2. Admirabile. 4 

3. Humile. 

4. Anceps. 

5. Obscurum. 

IX. Argumentation (ch. 9). 

1. Indue tio. 

2. Ratiocination 

a. Enthymema. 

b. Epicherema. 

c. Mendacium. 6 
X. Law 7 (ch. 10). 

XL The sententious saying (ch. n). 

1 A division applying only to the genus deliberativum. 

2 Six are usually given. Cassiodorus has exordium, narratio, par- 
titio, conHrmatio , reprehensio, conclusio. Halm, Rhetores Latini Min- 
ores, p. 497. 

8 An analysis of cases according to the emotional effect they are 
likely to have on the audience. 

4 " Ut admirentur ( judices) quenquam ad defensionem eius acce- 
dere." Halm, 316, 34, from Sulpitius Victor. 

5 The irregular syllogism. Each sub-head is exhaustively analyzed. 

6 Giving the lie as conclusion of an irregular syllogism. 

7 A short account of the nature of law. This sub-head is not found 
in the text-books on rhetoric before Isidore's time. 



Ill] ON RHETORIC XI1 

XII. Confirmation and denial (ch. 12). 

XIII. Personification and expression of character (chs. 

13-14). 

XIV. Kinds of subjects (ch. 15). 

Finitum. 
Infinitum. 
XV. Style and diction (ch. 16). 
XVI. The three ways of speaking (ch. 17). 
Humile. 
Medium. 
Grandiloquium. 
XVII. Parts of a sentence (ch. 18). 
XVIII. Faults to be avoided 1 (chs. 19-20). 
XIX. Figures 2 (ch. 21). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On rhetoric and its name. 

1. Rhetoric is the science of speaking well in civil questions 
for the purpose of persuading to what is just and good. It is 
called rhetoric in the Greek a™ tov prj-opi^iv, that is, from elo- 
quence of speech. For speech among the Greeks is called 
pyoic, and the orator prjrup. 

2. Rhetoric is allied to the grammatic art. For in grammar 
we learn the science of speaking correctly, and in rhetoric we 
discover in what way to express what we have learned. 

Chapter 2. On the discoverers of the art of rhetoric. 

1. This discipline was invented by Gorgias, Aristotle and 
Hermagoras among the Greeks, and translated into Latin by 
Tullius and Quintilian, but with such eloquence and variety 

1 In the use of letters, words, and sentences. 

a Figurae verborum et sententiarum. Samples of the former are 
anadiplosis, paradiastole, antimetabole, exoche; of the latter (forty- 
seven in all), coenonesis, parrhesia, aposiopesis, aetiologia, epitro- 
chasmus. Cf. p. 107, note. 



112 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ II2 

that it is easy for the reader to admire, impossible to under- 
stand. 

2. For while he holds the parchment the connected dis- 
course as it were cleaves to his memory, but presently when it 
is laid aside all recollection vanishes. Perfect knowledge of 
this discipline makes the orator. 

Chapter 3. On the name of the orator and the parts of 
rhetoric. 

1. The orator is the good man skilled in speaking. ' The 
good man' means nature, character, accomplishments (arti- 
bus). 'Skilled in speaking' means studied eloquence, which 
consists of five parts: invention, ordering, diction and style, 
memory, delivery, and the purpose, which is to persuade of 
something. 

2. Skill in speaking consists in three things : nature, learn- 
ing, practise ; nature, that is, talent ; learning, knowledge ; 
practice, continuous labor. These are the things that are 
looked to not only in the orator but in every artist with a view 
to accomplishment. 

Chapter 4. The three kinds of causes. 

1. There are three kinds of causes: deliberative, epideictic, 
judicial. The deliberative kind is that in which there is a dis- 
cussion as to what ought or ought not to be done in regard to 
any of the practical affairs of life. The epideictic, in which a 
character is shown to be praiseworthy or reprehensible. 

2. The judicial, in which opinion as to reward or punish- 
ment with reference to an act of an individual is given. 

Chapter 16. Style and diction. 

2. One must use good Latin and speak to the point. He 
speaks good Latin who constantly uses the true and natural 
names of things, and is not at variance with the style and lit- 
erary refinement of the present time. Let it not be enough 
for him to be careful of what he says, without saying it in a 
clear, attractive manner; nor that only, without saying what 
he says wittily also. 



1 1 3 ] ON DIALECTIC Ilif 

Chapter 21. On figures. 

1. Speech is amplified and adorned by the use of figures. 
Since direct, unvaried speech creates a weariness and disgust 
both of speaking and hearing, it must be varied and turned 
into other forms, so that it may give renewed power to the 
speaker, and become more ornate and turn the judge from an 
aloof countenance and attention. 



ON DIALECTIC 

INTRODUCTION 

In tracing the fortunes of logic through the period of 
decadence and the dark ages the effect upon it of a transi- 
tion from a pagan to a Christian environment need scarcely 
be taken into consideration. Such marks of degeneration as 
it shows must be attributed simply to the general decay of 
thought, which was marked in both pagan and Christian 
spheres. By its character logic was well adapted to pass 
from the service of Greek philosophy and science to that 
of Christian theology: it had been worked out mainly as a 
method of Greek science, which was especially backward 
in the fields where induction plays a large part; conse- 
quently the Greek logic is not inductive. It is the logic of 
universals ready-made, and it has nothing to do with their 
making; it receives universals as authoritative. It was 
therefore most welcome to Christian thinkers, since it was 
precisely adapted to " the task of drawing out the implica- 
tions of dogmatic premises." * 

It was not until a very late period that logic appeared in 
the Latin language in the form of a school text. In fact, 
with the exception of Varro's Dialectic in his " Nine Books 
of the Disciplines," which has been lost, there were no 

1 H. W. Blunt, Art. "Logic," in Encycl. Brit., nth ed. See also 
Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1895), 
vol. i, p. 36. 



1 14 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ T I4 

writings on logic in the Latin down to the fourth century. 
Instruction in the subject was apparently given in Greek 
and to but few pupils. In the fourth century, however, 
Greek was going out of use, and it became necessary, if 
logic was to be saved in the schools, to have Latin text- 
books. 1 The need was met by a line of text-writers, of 
whom Marius Victorinus (c. 350) was the first The 
oldest Latin school-book on logic that has survived, how- 
ever, is that of Martianus Capella. Neither he nor his two 
successors, Cassiodorus and Isidore, were versed in the 
subject; they were merely compilers of educational ency- 
clopedias. Such was the perfunctory origin of the Latin 
text-books on logic. 2 

The reader of Isidore's account of logic is struck by the 
enthusiasm displayed. Speaking of Aristotle's Categories 
he says : " This work of Aristotle's should be read atten- 
tively, since, just as is stated therein, all that a man says is 
included in the ten categories." 3 Further on he quotes 
the saying that " Aristotle dipped his pen in intellect when 
he wrote the Perihermeniae" 4 Again, a study of Apu- 
leius " will introduce the reader advantageously with God's 
help to great paths of understanding." 5 All of these 
passages, however, come word for word from Cassiodorus. 

1 It was thought that the Latin vocabulary was not well suited to 
the expression of the ideas of logic. Cf. Martianus Capella, De 
Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (ed. Eyssenhardt) where Dialectica is 
about to speak : " Ac mox Dialectica, quanquam parum digne latine 
loqui posse crederetur, tamen promptiore fiducia restrictisque quadam 
obtutus vibratione luminibus etiam ante verba formidibilis, sic exorsa." 

2 It is true that the works of Boethius, which were not school texts, 
served to revivify the subject, but his influence was very slight in this 
respect until long after Isidore's time. M. Manitius, Geschichte der 
lateinischen Litteratur des Mittelalters (Miinchen, 1911), PP- 29-32. 

3 2, 26, 15. Cf. Cass. Migne, P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170. 

4 2, 27, 1. Cf. Cass. Migne, P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170. 

6 2, 28, 22. Cf. Cass. Migne, P. L., vol. lxx, col. 11 73- 



115] ON DIALECTIC II5 

Isidore's enthusiasm as well as his bibliography seems to 
lack genuineness. 1 

ANALYSIS 

I. Definition of dialectic (chs. 22, 23). 

1. Distinction between dialectic and rhetoric. 
II. Definition of philosophy (ch. 24). 

III. The Isagoges 2 of Porphyry (ch. 25). 

1. The five predicables: genus, species, differentia, 
proprium, accidens. 

IV. The Categories of Aristotle (ch. 26). 
V. Aristotle's De periher menus' 1 (ch. 2j). 

1. Thought as expressed in language. 
VI. The syllogisms (ch. 28). 

1. Categorical syllogisms. 

2. Hypothetical syllogisms. 
VII. Definition (ch. 29). 

The fifteen kinds of definition. 
VIII. Arguments {to pica) (ch. 30). 

The twenty-two loci of arguments. 
IX. Opposites (ch. 31). 

EXTRACTS 

Book II, Chapter 22. On dialectic. 

1. Dialectic is the discipline elaborated with a view of as- 
certaining the causes of things. In itself it is the sub-division 
of philosophy that is called logical, i. e., rational, capable of 
defining, enquiring and expressing precisely. For it teaches 

1 The substance of Isidore's De Dialectica is taken chiefly from Cas- 
siodorus. A number of passages seem to be based on Martianus 
Capella: for example, Etym., 2, 31, 1, on Martianus Capella (Eyssen- 
hardt), 118, 8ff. ; Etym., 2, 31, 4-5, on M. C, 118, 15-25; Etym., 2, 31, 
7, on M. C, 120, 9 ff. 

2 Isidore's ignorance of Greek has been inferred from his use of 
the forms, isagogae and perihermeniae. See p. 36. 



1 1 6 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 1 1( ^ 

in the several kinds of questions how the true and false are 
separated by discussion. 

2. The first philosophers used dialectic in their discourses, 
but they did not reduce it to the practical form of an art. 
After them Aristotle systematized the subject-matter of this 
branch of learning, and called it dialectic, because there is 
discussion of words (dictis) in it; for aektov means dictio. 
And dialectic follows after the discipline of rhetoric because 
they have many things in common. 

Chapter 23. On the difference between the dialectical and the 
rhetorical art. 

1. Varro, in the nine books of the Disciplinae, distinguished 
dialectic and rhetoric by the following simile : " Dialectic and 
rhetoric are as in man's hand the closed fist and the open 
palm, the former drawing words together, the latter scattering 
them." 

2. If dialectic is keener in expressing things precisely, 
rhetoric is more eloquent in persuading to the belief it de- 
sires. The former seldom appears in the schools, the latter 
goes without a break [from the schools] to the law-court. 
The former gets few students, the latter often whole peoples. 

3. Before they come to the explanation of the Isagoge, 
philosophers are wont to give a definition of philosophy, in 
order that the things which concern it may be shown more 
easily. 

Chapter 24. On the definition of philosophy. 

1. Philosophy is the knowledge of things human and divine, 
united with a zeal for right living. It seems to consist of two 
things, knowledge and opinion. 

2. It is knowledge when anything is known with definite- 
ness; opinion, when a thing lurks as yet in uncertainty and 
seems in no way established, as for example, whether the sun 
is [only] as large as it seems or greater than all the earth ; 
likewise whether the moon is a sphere or concave; and 
whether the stars adhere to the heavens or pass in free course 
through the air ; of what size the heaven itself is and of what 



117] ON DIALECTIC 1T y 

material it is composed; whether it is quiet and motionless or 
revolves with incredible speed; how great is the thickness of 
the earth, or on what foundations it continues poised and sup- 
ported. 

3. The word philosophy, translated into Latin, means amor 
sapientiae. For the Greeks call amor ©//.w, and sapientiae 
ooqiav. The sub-division of philosophy is three-fold: first, 
natural philosophy, which in Greek is called physica, in which 
there is discussion of the search into nature; the second, 
moral, which in Greek is called ethica, in which the subject is 
morals ; the third, rational, which in the Greek is called logica, 
in which the discussion is as to how the truth itself is to be 
sought in respect to the causes of things or the conduct of life. 

4. In physics, then, the cause of inquiry, in ethics, the 
manner of living, in logic, the method of understanding, are 
concerned. Among the Greeks, Thales of Miletus, one of the 
seven wise men, was the first to search into natural philosophy. 
For this man first regarded with contemplative thought the 
causes of the heavens and the force of the things of nature. 
And this division of philosophy Plato afterward divided into 
four separate parts, namely, into arithmetic, geometry, music, 
astronomy. 

5. Socrates first established ethics with a view to correcting 
and ordering conduct, and he devoted all his attention to the 
discussion of right living, dividing it into the four virtues of 
the soul, namely, wisdom, justice, fortitude, temperance. 

6. Wisdom is engaged with things, and by it the evil is dis- 
tinguished from the good. Fortitude, by which adversity is 
endured with calmness. Temperance, by which lust and con- 
cupiscence are bridled. Justice, by which through righteous 
judgment his own is rendered to each. 

7. Plato added logical philosophy, which is called rational, 
and by it he analyzed the causes of things and of conduct, and 
examined their force in a rational way, dividing it into dia- 
lectic and rhetoric. It is called logical, that is, rational, for 
among the Greeks Uyoq means both word and reason. 

8. The divine utterances also consist of these three kinds 



1 18 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ z x g 

of philosophy. For they are wont to discuss nature, as in 
Genesis or Ecclesiastes ; or conduct, as in Proverbs and here 
and there in all the books; or logic, instead of which our 
[philosophers] assert the claim of theology, 1 as in the Song 
of Songs or the Gospels. 

9. Likewise some of the teachers have denned philosophy 
in its name and parts as follows : " Philosophy is the probable 
knowledge of divine and human affairs, as far as is possible 
for man." Otherwise : " Philosophy is the art of arts and 
the science of sciences." Again : " Philosophy is the medita- 
tion upon death, a definition which better suits the Christians, 
who trampling on worldly ambition, live in the intercourse of 
learning after the likeness of their future country." 

10. Others have defined the scheme of philosophy as made 
up of two parts, of which the former is contemplative, the 
latter practical. The contemplative (inspectiva) is divided 
into natural, theoretical, and divine. Theoretical is divided 
into four parts, into arithmetic, music, geometry, and astron- 
omy. 

11. Practical (actualis) philosophy is divided into moral, 
economic, and civil. Contemplative is the name given that in 
which, passing beyond the visible, we enjoy some contempla- 
tion of the divine and celestial, and behold them with the 
mind alone, since they pass beyond the bodily gaze. 

12. Natural philosophy is the name given when the nature 
of each and every thing is discussed, since nothing arises con- 
trary to nature in life, but each thing is assigned to those uses 
for which it was purposed by the Creator, unless perchance 
by God's will it is shown that some miracle appears. 

13. It is called divine philosophy when we discuss the in- 
effable nature of God or the spiritual beings that are in some 
degree of a lofty nature. 

14. The science which considers abstract quantity is called 
theoretical. For that is called abstract quantity which we 
separate from the material, or from other accidents, by the 

1 Du Breul has theologia; Arevalus, theorica. 



119] 0N DIALECTIC 1 1 g 

intellect, and treat by reasoning alone, as e. g., equal, unequal, 
and other matters of this kind. . . . 

16. Further, that is called practical philosophy which by its 
workings makes problems clear, of which there are three 
parts, moral, economic, and civil. That is called moral by 
which an honorable custom (mos) of living is sought and 
practices tending to virtue are established. That is called 
economic (dispensativa) in which the order of domestic af- 
fairs is wisely arranged. That is called civil by which the ad- 
vantage of a whole state is secured. 

Chapter 25. On the Isagoges of Porphyry. 

1. After the definitions of philosophy in which all things 
are embraced under general heads, let us now describe the 
Isagoges of Porphyry. Isagoge in the Greek means intro- 
ductio in the Latin, being meant for those, it is plain, who are 
beginning philosophy, and containing an explanation of first 
principles. In regard to anything whatever it is made clear 
what its nature is, by unfailing definition of the substance. 

2. For setting down first the genus, then the species, we 
subjoin also other things that are possibly related, and by 
setting aside common qualities we make distinctions, continu- 
ally interposing differences until we arrive at the proper 
quality of that which we are examining, its meaning being 
made definite, as, for example : Homo est animal rationale, 
mortale, terrenum, bipes, risus capax. 

3. When the genus animal is mentioned the substance of 
man is declared. For with reference to man the genus is 
animal; but since it has a wide application, the species, terre- 
num, is added and now what belongs to the air or water is 
excluded. And a difference is added, as, for example, bipes, 
which is given on account of the animals that go on several 
feet. Likewise rationale, because of the animals which lack 
reason; and mortale, because man is not an angel. 

4. Afterwards, when the common qualities had been set 
aside, the property was added at the end, for it is the charac- 
teristic of man alone to laugh. In this way the complete defi- 
nition to indicate man was reached. Aristotle and Tullv 



120 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I20 

held that the full definition of this science consisted of genus 
and differences. 

5. Later certain authorities, expressing- their position more 
fully, in their teaching divided perfect substantial definition 
into five divisions, as if into five organic parts. And the first 
of these deals with genus, the second with species, the third 
with difference, the fourth with proper quality, the fifth with 
accident. 

Chapter 26. On the categories of Aristotle. 

1. Next follow the categories of Aristotle, which in Latin 
are called prae die amenta, within which all discourse is em- 
braced throughout its various meanings. 

5. There are ten sorts of categories, namely, substantia, 
quantitas, qualitas, relatio, situs, locus, tempus, habitus, agere, 
pati. 

15. This work of Aristotle ought to be read with attention, 
since, as has been observed, whatever man speaks is included 
within the ten categories. It will help also to the understand- 
ing of the books that are devoted either to rhetoric or to logic. 1 

Chapter 2J. On Interpretation (de P erihermeniis) . 

1. There follows next the book On Interpretation, which is 
extremely subtle and guarded in its various formulas and 
repetitions, of which it is said : " Aristotle when he wrote the 
Perihermeniae dipped his pen in intellect." 

Chapter 28. On syllogisms. 

1. Next follow the syllogisms of dialectic, wherein the ad- 
vantage and excellence of that whole art is exhibited, the in- 
ferences of which greatly aid the reader in searching out the 
truth, so that the common error of deceiving an adversary by 
the sophisms of false conclusions disappears. 

2. There are three formulae of categorical syllogisms. To 
the first formula belong nine modes. . . . 

12. To the second formula belong four modes. . . . 

1 This passage is copied from Cassiodorus and is not an indication 
that Isidore had read the work of Aristotle that is mentioned. 



121] ON DIALECTIC I21 

1 6. To the third formula belong six modes. 

22. Let him who desires to understand fully these formulas 
of the categorical syllogisms read the book entitled Apuleii 
Perihermeniae, and he will learn matters that are treated with 
subtlety. 1 And by their clearness and well-weighed character 
they will introduce the reader advantageously with God's help 
to great paths of understanding. Now let us come to the 
hypothetical syllogisms in order. 

23-25. The modes of the hypothetical syllogisms that have 
a conclusion are seven. ... If anyone desires to know more 
fully the modes of the hypothetical syllogisms let him read 
Marius Victorinus' book entitled De Syllogismis Hypothe- 
ticis. 1 

26. Next let us approach the topic of dialectical definitions, 
which have such surpassing worth that they may rightly be 
called the clear manifestations of speech, and in a sense the 
guides to expression. 

Chapter 29. On the division of definitions, abbreviated from 
the book of Marius Victorinus. 

1. The definition of the philosophers is that which in de- 
scribing things sets forth what the thing in itself is — not, of 
what sort it is — and how it ought to be made up of its parts. 
For it is a brief statement separating the nature of each thing 
from its class, and marking it off by its peculiar meaning. 
Definitions are divided into fifteen sorts. The first kind of 
definition is the substantial (01^6%), which is named definition 
in the proper and true sense, as, for example, Est homo animal 
rationale, mortale, risus disciplinaeque capax. This defini- 
tion descends through species and differences and comes to 
the property, and expresses most fully what man is. 

16. Now let us come to the to pica, which are the seats of 
arguments, the fountains of ideas, and the sources of speech. 

Chapter 30. On the topics. 

1. Topica is the science of finding arguments. The division 

1 A recommendation copied word for word from Cassiodorus. 



122 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I22 

of the topica or the loci from which arguments are derived is 
three-fold. For some inhere in the very thing that is under 
discussion; there are others, called affect a (closely connected), 
which are known to be derived in a certain sense from other 
things; others, which are taken from outside [the subject]. . . 
1 8. It is clearly a wonderful thing that whatever the nimble- 
ness and variety of the human mind could discover, searching 
for ideas in different cases, could have been gathered into 
unity; that free and spontaneous intelligence is limited. For 
wherever it turns, whatever thoughts it enters on, the mind 
must fall upon some of those that have been described. 



BOOK III 

On the Four Mathematical Sciences 
ON ARITHMETIC 

INTRODUCTION 

In examining Isidore's De Arithmetica two peculiarities 
of the development of the subject should be borne in mind. 
In the first place, the predominant position among the 
mathematical sciences which Isidore claims for arithmetic 
was one acquired by it comparatively late. Owing perhaps 
to the awkwardness of the Greek notation of number x 
geometry had been developed first, and historically arith- 
metic was an off-shoot from geometry and borrowed its 
terminology largely from it. 2 It was not given an inde- 
pendent form until the time of Nicomachus (fl. ioo A. D.) 
whose Intro ductio Arithmetica was " the first exhaustive 
work in which arithmetic was treated quite independently 
of geometry." 3 Once it become independent, arithmetic, 
instead of geometry, came to be regarded as the funda- 
mental mathemetical science. The old tradition is reflected 
in Martianus Capella's order of subjects, in which geom- 

1 " The cumulative evidence is surely very strong that the alphabetic 
numerals were first employed in Alexandria early in the third cen- 
tury B. C." J. Gow, A Short History of Greek Mathematics (Cam- 
bridge, 1884), p. 48. 

2 We have in Isidore, for example, the terms numerus trigonus, 
numerus quadratus, numerus quinquangulus, and linealis, superficialis, 
and circularis numerus. 

3 Cajori, Hist, of Math., p. 72. 

123] 123 



124 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I24 

etry is placed first and arithmetic second, while the newer 
tradition is seen in the order of Cassiodorus and Isidore, 
who both have passages also emphasizing the fundamental 
character of arithmetic. 

The second peculiarity is one which will surprise the 
modern reader who is familiar with arithmetic as a utili- 
tarian study. The ancient arithmetica had nothing to do 
with the art of reckoning, which was called logistica. 1 The 
science and the art of numbers were completely divorced 
and the latter was excluded from the higher education as 
we have it in the seven liberal arts. Consequently we can 
expect nothing practical in Isidore's De Arithmetica. Noth- 
ing is said of methods of calculation, elementary or ad- 
vanced, and, as a matter of course, nothing is to be found 
here on such topics as the use of the abacus 2 or the method 
of computing Easter, though the latter was the greatest 
mathematical problem of the time. 

Isidore's source in the De Arithmetica was Cassiodorus, 3 
whom he copies with little change; while Cassiodorus' 
work was apparently a bare abstract of Boethius' transla- 
tion of Nicomachus. Isidore's account is of great brevity 
and contains a number of unexplained technical terms. 

1 Gow, speaking of the Greek apidiirjTiK^ says : " Its aim was entirely 
different from that of the ordinary calculator, and it was natural that 
the philosopher who sought in numbers to find the plan on which t^e 
creator worked, should begin to regard with contempt the merchant 
who wanted only to know how many sardines at ten for an obol he 
could buy for a talent." Gow, op. cit., p. 72. 

2 Cantor believes that the use of the abacus had been forgotten 
before Isidore's time, cf. " calculator a calculis, id est a lapillis minutis 
quos antiqui in manu tenentes numeros componebant." Etym., 10. 
43. See Cantor, Vorlesungen ilber Geschichte der Mathematik (Leip- 
zig, 1894-1900), vol. i, p. 774- 

3 Isidore adds to the account as found in Cassiodorus a few remarks 
about numbers in the Scriptures, some derivations of numbers, and 
the sections on the means and on infinity. 



I2 5] ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES L2 - 

EXTRACTS 

Preface. Mathematics is called in Latin doctrinalis scientia. 
It considers abstract quantity. For that is abstract quantity 
which we treat by reason alone, separating it by the intellect 
from the material or from other non-essentials, as for example, 
equal, unequal, or the like. And there are four sorts of math- 
ematics, namely, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. 
Arithmetic is the science of numerical quantity in itself. 
Geometry is the science of magnitude and forms. 1 Music is 
the science that treats of numbers that are found in sounds. 
Astronomy is the science that contemplates the courses of the 
heavenly bodies and their figures, and all the phenomena of 
the stars. These sciences we shall next describe at a little 
greater length in order that their significance may be fully 
shown. 

Chapter i. On the name of the science of arithmetic. 

i. Arithmetic is the science of numbers. For the Greeks 
call number hpSfioq The writers of secular literature have de- 
cided that it is first among the mathematical sciences since 
it needs no other science for its own existence. 

2. But music and geometry and astronomy, which follow, 
need its aid in order to be and exist. 

Chapter 2. On the writers. 

1. They say that Pythagoras was the first among the Greeks 
to write of the science of number, and that it was later de- 
scribed more fully by Nicomachus, whose work Apuleius first, 
and then Boethius, translated into Latin. 

Chapter 3. What number is. 

1. Number is multitude made up of units. For one is the 
seed of number but not number. Nummus (coin) gave its 
name to numerus (number), and from being frequently used 
originated the word. 

1 Du Breul has magnitiidinis et formarum; Arevalo, magnitudinis 
formarum. 



126 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I2 £ 

Unus derives its name from the Greek, for the Greeks 
call unus lva y likewise duo, tria, which they call 6vo and rpia. 

2. Quattuor took its name from a square figure {figura 
quadrata). Quinque, however, received its name from one 
who gave the names to numbers not according to nature but 
according to whim. Sex and sept em come from the Greek. 

3. For in many names that are aspirated in Greek we use 
s instead of the aspiration. We have sex for e£, septem for 
£7rra, and also the word serpillum (thyme) for herpillum. 
Octo is borrowed without change; they have evrta we novem; 
they Skua, we decern. 

4. Decern is so-called from a Greek etymology, because it 
ties together and unites the numbers below it. For to tie 
together and unite is called among them deofieveiv. 1 

Chapter 4. What numbers signify. 

1. The science of number must not be despised. For in 
many passages of the holy scriptures it is manifest what great 
mystery they contain. For it is not said in vain in the praises 
of God : " Omnia in mensura et numero et pondere f ecisti." 
For the senarius, which is perfect in respect to its parts, 2 de- 
clares the perfection of the universe by a certain meaning of 
its number. In like manner, too, the forty days which Moses 
and Elias and the Lord himself fasted, are not understood 
without an understanding of number. 

3. So, too, other numbers appear in the holy scriptures 
whose natures none but experts in this art can wisely declare 
the meaning of. It is granted to us, too, to depend in some 
part upon the science of numbers, since we learn the hours 
by means of it, reckon the course of the months, and learn the 
time of the returning year. Through number, indeed, we are 
instructed in order not to be confounded. Take number from 
all things and all things perish. Take calculation from the 

1 This derivation points to a soft c in decern. 

2 Six was regarded as a perfect number, because it is equal to the 
sum of all its factors. 



I2 y] ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 12 y 

world and all is enveloped in dark ignorance, nor can he who 
does not know the way to reckon be distinguished from the 
rest of the animals. 

Chapter 5. On the first division into even and odd. 

1. Number is divided into even and odd. Even number is 
divided into the following: evenly even, evenly uneven, and 
unevenly even, and unevenly uneven. 1 Odd number is divided 
into the following: prime and uncompounded, compounded, 
and a third class which comes between (mediocris) w^hich in 
a certain way is prime and uncompounded, but in another way 
secondary and compounded. 

2. An even number is that which can be divided into two 
equal parts, as II, IV, VIII. 2 An odd number is that which 
cannot be divided into equal parts, there being one in the 
middle which is either too little or too much, as III, V, VII, 
IX, and so on. 

3. Evenly even number is that which is divided equally into 
even number, until it comes to indivisible unity, as for ex- 
ample, LXIV has a half XXXII, this again XVI ; XVI, VIII : 
VIII, IV ; IV, II ; II, I, which is single and indivisible. 

4. Evenly uneven is that which admits of division into 
equal parts, but its parts soon remain indivisible, as VI, X, 
XVIII, XXX, and L, for presently, when you divide such a 
number, you run upon a number which you cannot halve. 

5. Unevenly even number is that whose halves can be di- 
vided again, but do not go on to unity, as XXIV. For this 
number being divided in half makes XII, divided again VI, 
and again, III; and this part does not admit of further divi- 
sion, but before unity a limit is found which you cannot halve, 

6. Unevenly uneven is that which is measured unevenly by 
an uneven number, as XXV, XLIX ; which, being uneven 

1 Pariter par, et pariter impar, et impariter par et impariter impar. 
Since these all profess to be divisions of even number, the word odd is 
not used in the translation. 

2 To remind the reader of Isidore's notation Roman numerals are 
kept wherever he used them. 



128 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I2 g 

numbers, are divided also by uneven factors, as, seven times 
seven, XLIX, and five times five, XXV. Of odd numbers 
some are prime, some compounded, some mean (mediocris). 

7. Prime numbers are those which have no other factor ex- 
cept unity alone, as three has only a third, five only a fifth, 
seven only a seventh, for these have only one factor. 

Compound numbers are they which are not only measured 
by unity, but are produced by another number, as IX, XV, 
XXI, XXV. For we say three times three are nine, and seven 
times three are XXI, and three times five are XV, and five 
times five are XXV. 

8. Mean (medio cris) numbers are those which in a certain 
fashion seem prime and uncompounded and in another fashion 
secondary and compounded. For example, when IX is com- 
pared with XXV, it is prime and uncompounded, because it 
has no common factor except unity alone, but if it is com- 
pared with XV it is secondary and compounded, since there 
is in it a common factor in addition to unity, that is, III. 
Because three times three make nine, and three times five 
make fifteen. 1 

9. Likewise of even numbers some are excessive, others 
defective, others perfect. 2 Excessive are those whose factors 
being added together exceed its total, as for example, XII. 
For it has five factors : a twelfth, which is one ; a sixth, which 
is two ; a fourth, which is three ; a third, which is four ; a half, 
which is six. For one and two and three and four and six 
being added together make XVI, which is far in excess of 
twelve. . . . 

10. Defective numbers are those which being reckoned by 
their factors make a less total, as for example, ten. . . . 

11. The perfect number is that which is equalled by its 
factors, as VI. . . . The perfect numbers are, under ten, VI ; 
under a hundred, XXVIII ; under a thousand, CCCCXCVL 

1 The division into even, odd, and numbers sharing the characteris- 
tics of even and odd numbers goes back to Nicomachus. It is not a 
logical division, as the second class contains the third. See Gow, p. 90. 

2 Superfiui, diminuti, perfecti. 



129] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 12 g 

Chapter 6. On the second division of all number. 

I. All number is considered either with reference to itself 
or in relation to something. The former is divided as follows : 
some are equal, as for example, two ; others are unequal, as 
for example, three. 1 The latter is divided as follows : some are 
greater, some are less. The greater are divided as follows : 
into multiplices (multiple), sup erp articular es, super partientes, 
multiplices sup erp articular es, multiplices super partientes. The 
less are divided as follows: Sub -multiplices (sub-multiple), 
sub-super particular es, sub-super partientes, sub-multiplices 
sub-super particular es, sub-multiplices sub-super partientes. 

6. . . . The super particulars numerus is when a greater 
number contains in itself a lesser number with which it is 
compared, and at the same time one part of it. 

J. For example; III when compared with II contains in 
itself two and also one, which is the half of two. IV when 
compared with III, contains three and also one, which is the 
third of three. Likewise V, when compared with IV, contains 
the number four and also one, which is the fourth part of the 
said number four, and so on. 

8. The superpartiens numerus is that which contains the 
whole of a lesser number and in addition two parts of it, 
either thirds or fifths or other parts. For example, when V 
is compared with III, the number five contains three and in 
addition to this two parts of it. 

Chapter 7. On the third division of all number. 

1. Numbers are abstract or concrete. The latter are divided 
as follows: first, lineal; second, superficial; third, solid. Ab- 
stract number is that which is made up of abstract units. For 
example, III, IV, V, VI, and so on. 

2. Concrete number is that which is made up of units that 
are not abstract, as for example, the number three, if it is 
understood of magnitude, whether line, superficies, or solid, 
is called concrete. 

1 The examples are found in Du Breul. They do not appear in 
Arevalo. 



130 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I3 q 

4. The number of superficies is that which is constituted 
not only by length but also by breadth, as triangular, square, 
pentangular, or circular numbers, and the rest that are con- 
tained in a plane surface or superficies. 

5. The circular number, when it is multiplied by itself, be- 
ginning with itself, ends with itself. For example, Quinquies 
quini vicies quinque. 

6. . . . The spherical number is that which being multi- 
plied by the circular number begins with itself and ends with 
itself; for example, five times five are twenty-five, and this 
circle being multiplied by itself makes a sphere, that is, five 
times XXV make CXXV. 

Chapter 8. On the distinction between arithmetic, geometry, 
and music. 

1. Between arithmetic, geometry and music there is a dif- 
ference in finding the means. In arithmetic in the first place 
you find it in this way. You add the extremes and divide 
and find the half; as for example, suppose the extremes are 
VI and XII, you add them and they make XVIII. You divide 
and get IX, which is the mean of arithmetic (analogicum 
arithmeticae) , since the mean is surpassed by the last by as 
many units as it surpasses the first. For IX surpasses VI by 
three units, and XII surpasses it by the same number. 

2. According to geometry you find it this way. The ex- 
tremes multiplied together make as much as the means mul- 
tiplied, for example, VI and XII multiplied make LXXII ; 
the means VIII and IX multiplied make the same. 

3. According to music you find it in this way : The mean is 
exceeded by the last term by the part by which it exceeds the 
first term, as for example, VI is surpassed by VIII by two 
units, which is a third part, and by the same part the mean 
VIII is surpassed by the last term which is XII. 

Chapter 9. That infinite numbers exist. 

1. It is most certain that there are infinite numbers, since 
at whatever number you think an end must be made I say not 
only that it can be increased by the addition of one, but, how- 



I 3 1 ] ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 131 

ever great it is, and however large a multitude it contains, by 
the very method and science of numbers it can not only be 
doubled but even multiplied. 

2. Each number is limited by its own proper qualities, so 
that no one of them can be equal to any other. Therefore in 
relation to one another they are unequal and diverse, and the 
separate numbers are each finite, and all are infinite. 

ON GEOMETRY 

INTRODUCTION 

In spite of the high development of geometry among the 
Greeks it never took root as a pure science in the western 
Roman world, 1 and neither the various practical applica- 
tions of its principles nor its use as a disciplinary educa- 
tional subject sufficed to fasten thoughtful attention upon 
it; in consequence, it lost almost its entire content. As it 
appears in the four writers who treat of it in later Roman 
and early medieval times, Martianus Capella, Boethius, 2 
Cassiodorus, and Isidore, it furnishes a striking commen- 
tary upon the intellectual conservatism that could retain 
without a suspicion of criticism a subject that was no 
longer anything but empty form. 

The substance of Isidore's De Geometria comes with 
little change from Cassiodorus. It is noteworthy that these 
two writers have nothing that does not go with the subject 
according to the modern conception of it, and do not 
follow the example of their predecessor Martianus Capella, 3 

1 Cantor, Vorlesungen ilber Geschichte der Mathematik, vol. i, p. 521. 

2 The authenticity of the work on geometry that has been handed 
down under Boethius' name is questioned. (See Cantor, ibid., pp. 
S36 et seq.) It contains the complete proof of only three of Euclid's 
propositions. It also contains calculations of areas of geometrical 
figures. See edition of Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867). 

3 Cf. Martianus Capella's definition : " Geometria vocor quod per- 



132 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I32 

in whose acount of the seven liberal arts the void caused 
by the loss of the proper content of geometry is filled with 
geography. 

TRANSLATION 1 

Book III, Chapter 10. On the inventors of geometry and its 
name, 
i. The science of geometry is said to have been discovered 
first by the Egyptians, because when the Nile overflowed and 
all their lands were overspread with mud, its origin in the 
division of the land by lines and measurements gave the name 
to the art. And later, being carried further by the keenness 
of the philosophers, it measured the spaces of the sea, the 
heavens, and the air. 

2. For, having their attention aroused, students began to 
search into the spaces of the heavens, after measuring the 
earth; how far the moon was from the earth, the sun itself 
from the moon, and how great a measure extended to the 
summit of the sky ; and thus they laid off in numbers of stades 
with probable reason the very distances of the sky and the cir- 
cuit of the earth. 

3. But since this science arose from the measuring of the 
earth, it took its name also from its beginning. For geometria 
is so named from the earth and measuring. For the earth 
is called yn in Greek, and measuring, ^hpov. The art 2 of this 
science embraces lines, intervals, magnitudes, and figures, and 
in figures, dimensions and numbers. 

meatam crebro admensamque tellurem eiusque figuram, magnitudinem, 
locum, partes et stadia possim cum suis rationibus explicare neque 
ulla sit in totius terrae diversitate partitio quam non memoris cursu 
descriptionis absolvam." Eyssenhardt, 198, 30. 

1 The whole of Isidore's De Geometria is here given, with the ex- 
ception of a few passages that are untranslatable. It is given as a 
whole to enforce attention to the loss of the traditional content, partial 
or complete, which was so striking a feature of all the members of 
the quadrivium in early medieval times. 

2 Hujiis ars disciplinae. Ars may be equal to 'hand-book' here. 



133] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES I33 

Chapter n. On the four- fold division of geometry. 

i. The four-fold division of geometry is into plane figures, 
numerical magnitude, rational magnitude, and solid figures. 

2. Plane figures are those which are contained by length 
and breadth. Numerical magnitude is that which can be di- 
vided by the numbers of arithmetic. 

3. Rational magnitudes are those whose measures we can 
know, and irrational, those the amount of whose measurement 
is not known. 

4. Solid figures are those that are contained by length, 
breadth, and thickness, which are five in number, according 
to Plato. 

Chapter 12. On the figures of geometry. 

1. The first of the figures on a plane surface is the circle, 
a figure that is plane, and has a circumference, in the middle 
of which is a point upon which everything converges (cuncta 
convergunt) which geometers call the center, and the Latins 
call the point of the circle. 

2. A quadrilateral figure is one on a plane surface, and it 
is contained by four straight lines. . . . 

3. A sphere is a figure of rounded form equal in all its 
parts. 

A cube is a solid figure which is contained by length, 
breadth, and thickness. 

5. A cone (conon) is a solid figure which narrows from a 
broad base like the right-angled triangle. 

6. A pyramid is a solid figure which narrows to a point 
from a broad base like fire. For fire in Greek is called nvp. 

7. Just as all number is contained within ten so the outline 
of every figure is contained within the circle. 

Chapter 13. On the first principles of geometry. 

1. ... A point is that which has no part. A line is length 
without breadth. A straight line is one which lies evenly in 
respect to its points. A superficies is that which has length 
and breadth alone. 



134 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I34 

Chapter 14. On the numbers of geometry. 

1. You search into the numbers of geometry as follows: the 
extremes being multiplied, amount to as much as the means 
multiplied; as for example, VI and XII being multiplied, 
make LXXII; the means VIII and IX being multiplied, 
amount to the same. 

ON MUSIC 

INTRODUCTION 

As an educational subject music is the oldest of those 
grouped under the heading of the seven liberal arts. In 
Plato's time music and gymnastic were the staples of edu- 
cation, and the former term meant chiefly the study of 
poetry, with music in the proper sense of the word as a 
mere adjunct. As the different subjects, such as grammar, 
rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, appeared in the curriculum, 
the field of music narrowed and it held a less commanding 
place. Conflicting points of view in regard to it appear to 
have arisen. The older educational tradition connected music 
with grammar and the other literary studies. On the other 
hand, the influence of the Pythagorean theory of number 
and of its application to music tended to dissociate gram- 
mar and music, and to place the latter in relation to the 
mathematical sciences. It has been noticed that among the 
older Roman writers from whom evidence on this matter 
can be drawn — Cicero, Varro, Seneca, Quintilian, and 
others — the association of music and grammar appears the 
natural one, while in the Roman writers of the second, 
third, and fourth centuries both traditions prevail, with an 
increasing preference for placing music among the mathe- 
matical sciences, where it finally found itself when the 
canon of the seven liberal arts was formed, and where it 
remained to the end of the middle ages. 1 

1 Schmidt, Questiones de musicis scriptoribus Romanis, imprimis 



135] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 135 

In Isidore little is to be found to justify the mathemati- 
cal environment of music. It is true that at times he de- 
fines it as a mathematical science * and he insists on the 
musical view of the universe as a necessary complement to 
other views. " Without music," he says, " there can be no 
perfect knowledge, for there is nothing without it. For 
even the universe itself is said to have been formed under 
the guidance of harmony." 2 But, with the exception of a 
paragraph on the musical mean, his treatment is entirely 
taken up with the non-mathematical aspect of the subject, 
and the definition " music is the practical knowledge of 
melody '" 3 is the one that more closely fits the occasion. 

The treatment 4 of music is of about the same length as 

de Cassiodoro et Isidoro (Darmstadt, 1899). This dissertation is in 
part an examination of the question whether the Roman writers asso- 
ciated music with grammar or the mathematical sciences in their 
enumerations of educational subjects. It contains a useful list of 
passages bearing on the seven liberal arts. 

1 Five definitions of music are given by Isidore, two making no 
allusion to its mathematical character. They are as follows : 

" Musica est peritia modulationis sono cantuque consistens." Etym., 
3, 15, 1. 

" Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui inveniuntur in 
sonis." Etym., 3, Preface. 

" Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui ad aliquid sunt 
his qui inveniuntur in sonis." Etym., 2, 24, 15. 

" Musica quae in carminibus cantibusque consistit." Etym., 1, 2, 2. 

" Musica est ars spectabilis voce vel gestu, habens in se numerorum 
ac soni certam dimensionem cum scientia perfectae modulationis. 
Haec constat ex tribus modis, id est, sono, verbis, numeris." DOT., 
ii, cap. 39. 

2 Etym., 3, 17, 1. 3 Etym., 3, 15, 1. 

* C. Schmidt, op. cit., after a detailed comparison of passages, con- 
cludes that Isidore did not obtain his material for De Musica from 
Cassiodorus or Augustine, but that all three go back independently to 
an original work produced by an unknown Christian writer. How- 
ever, the numerous identical passages in Cassiodorus and Isidore 
would indicate that the latter had used the former at least as a guide 
in plagiarism. See Schmidt, pp. 26-52, and compare Dressel, de Isidori 
Originum Fontibus (Turin, 1874), pp. 5 and 6. 



136 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^5 

that of arithmetic, and is devoted mainly to definitions of 
musical terms and brief descriptions of wind and stringed 
instruments. It appears that Isidore knew nothing of 
music in a technical sense. 1 



EXTRACTS 

Book III, Chapter 15. On music and its name. 

1. Music is the practical knowledge of melody, consisting 
of sound and song; and it is called music by derivation 
from the Muses. And the Muses were so-called and rov naoQai, 
that is, from inquiring, because it was by them, as the ancients 
had it, that the potency of songs and the melody of the voice 
were inquired into. 

2. Since sound is a thing of sense it passes along into past 
time, and it is impressed on the memory. From this it was 
pretended by the poets that the Muses were the daughters of 
Jupiter and Memory. For unless sounds are held in the 
memory by man they perish, because they cannot be written. 

Chapter 16. On its discoverers. 

1. Moses says that the discoverer of the art of music was 
Tubal, who was of the family of Cain and lived before the 
flood. But the Greeks say that Pythagoras discovered the 
beginnings of this art from the sound of hammers and the 
striking of tense cords. Others assert that Linus of Thebes, 
and Zethus, and Amphion, were the first to win fame in the 
musical art. 

2. After whose time this science in particular was gradually 
established and enlarged in many ways, and it was as disgrace- 
ful to be ignorant of music as of letters. And it had a place 

1 Woodridge in the Oxford History of Music (Oxford, 1901), vol. 
i> P- 33, note, says of Isidore's de Musica, that it " clearly reveals the 
complete ignorance of his time. His dicta upon music are chiefly 
crude and misleading paraphrases from Cassiodorus and others, from 
which it is evident that the signification of the terms employed had 
completely escaped him. I\Iodes are not mentioned by him [but cf. 
3, 20, 7] and keys and genera are confounded together." 



137] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES L ^y 

not only at sacred rites, but at all ceremonies and in all things 
glad or sorrowful. 

Chapter 17. On the power of music. 

1. And without music there can be no perfect knowledge, 
for there is nothing without it. For even the universe itself 
is said to have been put together with a certain harmony of 
sounds, and the very heavens revolve under the guidance of 
harmony. Music rouses the emotions, it calls the senses to a 
different quality. 

2. In battles, too, the music of the trumpet fires the war- 
riors, and the more impetuous its loud sound the braver is the 
spirit for the fight. Also, song cheers the rowers. For the 
enduring of labors, too, music comforts the mind, and singing 
lightens weariness in solitary tasks. 

3. Music calms overwrought minds also, as is read of 
David, who by his skill in playing rescued Saul from an un- 
clean spirit. Even the very beasts and snakes, birds and 
dolphins, music calls to hear its notes. Moreover whatever 
we say or whatever emotions we feel within from the beating 
of our pulses, it is proven that they are brought into com- 
munion with the virtues through the musical rhythms of har- 
mony. 

Chapter 18. On the three parts of music. 

1. There are three parts of music, namely, harmonica, 
rhythmica, metrica. Harmonica is that which distinguishes 
in sounds the high and the low. Rhythmica is that which 
inquires concerning the succession of words as to whether the 
sound fits them well or ill. 

2. Metrica is that which learns by approved method the 
measure of the different metres, as for example, the heroic, 
iambic, elegiac, and so on. 

Chapter 19. On the triple division of music. 

1. It is agreed that all sound which is the material of music 
is of three sorts. First is harmonica, which consists of vocal 
music; second is organica, which is formed from the breath; 
third is rhythmica, which receives its numbers from the beat 
of the fingers. ^- ■ 



138 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I3 g 

2. For sound is produced either by the voice, coming 
through the throat; or by the breath, coming through the 
trumpet or tibia, for example; or by touch, as in the case of 
the cithara or anything else that gives a tuneful sound on 
being struck. 

Chapter 20. On the first division of music which is called 
harmonica. 

1. The first division of music, which is called harmonica, 
that is, modulation of the voice, has to do with comedians, 
tragedians, and choruses, and all who sing with the proper 
voice. 1 This [coming] from the spirit and the body makes 
motion, and out of motion, sound, out of which music is 
formed, which is called in man the voice. 

2. Harmonica is the modulation of the voice and the con- 
cord or fitting together of very many sounds. 

3. Symphonia is the managing of modulation so that high 
and low tones accord, whether in the voice or in wind or 
stringed instruments. Through this, higher and lower voices 
harmonize, so that whoever makes a dissonance from it of- 
fends the sense of hearing. The opposite of this is diaphonia, 
that is, voices grating on one another or in dissonance. 

7. Tonus is a high utterance of voice. For it is a differ- 
ence and measure of harmony which depends on the stress 
and pitch of the voice. Musicians have divided its kinds into 
fifteen parts, of which the hyperlydian is the last and highest, 
the hypodorian the lowest of all. 

8. Song is the modulation of the voice, for sound is unmod- 
ulated, and sound precedes song. 

Chapter 21. On the second division, which is called organica. 
1. The second division, organica, has to do with those [in- 
struments] that, filled with currents of breath, are animated 
so as to sound like the voice, as for example, trumpets, reeds, 
Pan's pipes, organs, the pandura, and instruments like these. 2 

1 Qui voce propria canunt. 

2 The pandura was a stringed instrument ! In the succeeding sec- 
tions these instruments are briefly described, and the sambuca, another 
stringed instrument, is also included. 



139] 0N THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 739 

Chapter 22. On the third division, which is called rhythmica. 

1. The third division is rhythmica, having to do with strings 
and instruments that are beaten, to which are assigned the dif- 
ferent species of cithara, the drum, and the cymbal, the sis- 
trum, acitabula of bronze and silver, and others of metallic 
stiffness that when struck return a pleasant tinkling sound, 
and the rest of this sort. 1 

2. The form of the cithara in the beginning is said to have 
been like the human breast, because as the voice was uttered 
from the breast so was music from the cithara, and it was 
so-called for the same reason. For pectus is in the Doric 
language called nidapa- 

Chapter 23. On the numbers of music. 

1. You inquire into the numbers according to music as fol- 
lows : setting down the extremes, as for example, VI and XII, 
you see by how many units VI is surpassed by XII, and it is 
by VI units ; you square it ; six times six make XXXVI. You 
add those first-mentioned extremes, VI and XII ; together 
they make XVIII; you divide XXXVI by XVIII; two is the 
result. This you add to the smaller amount, VI namely; the 
result will be VIII and it will be the mean between VI and 
XII. Because VIII surpasses VI by two units, that is by a 
third of six, and VIII is surpassed by XII by four units, a 
third part [of twelve]. By what part, then, the mean sur- 
passes, by the same is it surpassed. 

2. Just as this proportion exists in the universe, being con- 
stituted by the revolving circles, so also in the microcosm — not 
to speak of the voice — it has such great power that man does 
not exist without harmony. 2 

1 Other instruments mentioned are psalterum, lyra, barbitos, phoenix, 
pedis, indica, aliae quadrata forma vel trigonali, margaritum, balle- 
matica, tintinnabulum , symphonia. 

2 The general sense of the passage: " ut sine ipsius perfectione 
etiam homo symphoniis carens non consistat." 3, 23, 2. See p. 65. 



140 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I4 q 

ON ASTRONOMY 

INTRODUCTION 

The science of astronomy, in its history from the great 
period of Greece down to the dark ages, furnishes almost 
as complete a spectacle of decay as does geometry. It is 
quite certain " that Aristarchus taught the annual motion 
of the earth around the sun, and both he and Seleukus 
taught the diurnal rotation of the earth," x but the general 
scientific development of the age was not sufficient to as- 
similate this advanced theory, and astronomers went back 
to a geocentric universe. Strange to say, the later rise of 
practical astronomy at Alexandria, and the development of 
pure mathematics, did not secure a return to the more ad- 
vanced theory, the efforts of the later astronomers being 
devoted, not to a reconsideration of the fundamental theses 
of the subject, but to putting the geocentric theory on a 
secure mathematical basis. The greatest of these astrono- 
mers, Ptolemy (second century A. D.), left in his Syntaxis 
a comprehensive summing up of mathematical astronomy. 

Among the Romans no scientists arose to assimilate the 
results of the work of the Greeks, and sound ideas as to the 
form of the universe were rare even in the most intelligent 
circles. Since systematic observation was not practiced, 
and a knowledge of the higher mathematics did not exist 
among the Romans, their astronomy was a matter of tra- 
dition and authority. Therefore upon the acceptance of 
Christianity and the realization that there was a conflict 
between the Greek and the Hebrew cosmologies, it was a 
comparatively easy matter to accept the Scriptures instead 
of the secular writers as the source of authority. 

1 J. L. E. Dreyer, History of the Planetary Systems from Thales 
to Kepler (Cambridge, 1906), p. 141. 



141 ] 0N THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES i4I 

In Isidore's ideas on cosmology a curious inconsistency 
appears. On the one hand, he shows that he regards the 
words of the Scripture as the final authority, and he fre- 
quently gives expression to primitive notions in accord 
with the Hebrew cosmology. On the other hand, he dis- 
plays a greater liberality than is shown by his predecessor, 
Cassiodorus, or by any other Christian writer in the Latin 
language up to his time, in borrowing from the pagan 
writers on astronomy. The explanation of this may be 
that it was a natural reaction from dogmatic narrowness, 
made possible for him by the favorable conditions offered 
by contemporary Spain ; but the more probable supposition 
is that his natural vagueness of mind and lack of critical 
power enabled him to be much more liberal in effect than 
he in reality would have wished to be. 1 

Another feature of Isidore's De Astronomia that de- 
serves notice is his attitude toward the forbidden science 
of astrology. 2 He denies a fundamental assumption of the 
science, namely, that Mercury and Venus, for example, 
have as planets an influence analogous to their characters 
in mythology, and he asserts that the names of the planets 
and fixed stars, as used in astrology, have no validity. 
This was vigorous reasoning for the dark ages, and to all 
appearance it completely cut away the foundation of as- 
trology. Nevertheless Isidore believed that astrology had 
some truth — the magi who announced the birth of Christ 
were, he believed, astrologers — but this truth arose " out 

1 See Introduction, p. 51. 

2 Tannery in his Recherches sur I'histoire de I'astronomie ancienne 
(Paris, 1893), has an interesting discussion of the successive names 
of the science of the heavenly bodies. He attributes the revival of 
the older term astronomy about the end of the third century A, D., 
to the association of the term astrology with divination. In Varro 
the name used was astrology. 

3 3, 71, 21-40. See pp. 152-4. 



142 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I42 

of a deadly alliance of men and bad angels." His attitude, 
then, seems to be that astrologers may forecast the future, 
but that their ability to do so depends on the assistance of 
demons, and that the drawing up of nativities is merely a 
pretence to cloak this partnership. 

Little is known of astronomy as a subject in the Roman 
schools. It no doubt formed part of the curriculum, but 
apparently no text-book was produced between the time of 
Varro and that of Martianus Capella. The three school 
treatises of late Roman and early medieval times, written 
by Capella, Cassiodorus, and Isidore, were all the work of 
educational encyclopedists from whom nothing of a scien- 
tific character could be expected. 

EXTRACTS 

Book III, Chapter 24. On the name of astronomy. 

I. Astronomy is the law of the stars, and it traces with in- 
quiring reason the courses of the heavenly bodies, and their 
figures, and the regular movements of the stars with refer- 
ence to one another and to the earth. 

Chapter 25. On its discoverers. 

1. The Egyptians were the first to discover astronomy. 
And the Chaldeans first taught astrology and the observance 
of nativity. Moreover, Josephus asserts that Abraham taught 
astrology to the Egyptians. The Greeks, however, say that 
this art was first elaborated by Atlas, and therefore it was 
said that he held the heavens up. 

2. Whoever was the discoverer, it was the movement of 
the heavens and his rational faculty that stirred him, and in 
the light of the succession of seasons, the observed and es- 
tablished courses of the stars, and the regularity of the inter- 
vals, he considered carefully certain dimensions and numbers, 
and getting a definite and distinct idea of them he wove them 
into order and discovered astrology. 



143] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES T43 

Chapter 26. On its teachers. 

I. In both Greek and Latin there are volumes written on 
astronomy by different writers. Of these Ptolemy 1 is con- 
sidered chief among the Greeks. He also taught rules by 
which the courses of the stars may be discovered. 2 
Chapter 27. The difference between astronomy and astrology. 

1. There is some difference between astronomy and as- 
trology. For astronomy embraces the revolution of the 
heavens, the rise, setting, and motion of the heavenly bodies, 
and the origin of their names. Astrology, on the other hand, 
is in part natural, in part superstitious. 

2. It is natural astrology when it describes the courses of 
the sun and the moon and the stars, and the regular succes- 
sion of the seasons. Superstitious astrology is that which the 
mathematici follow, who prophesy by the stars, and who dis- 
tribute the twelve signs of the heavens among the individual 
parts of the soul or body, and endeavor to predict the nativi- 
ties and characters of men from the course of the stars. 

Chapter 28. On the subject-matter of astronomy. 

1. The subject-matter of astronomy is made up of many 
kinds. For it defines what the universe is, what the heavens, 
what the position and movement of the sphere, what the axis 
of the heavens and the poles, what are the climates of the 
heavens, what the courses of the sun and moon and stars, and 
so forth. 

Chapter 29. On the universe and its name. 

1. Mundus (the universe) is that which is made up of the 
heavens and earth and the sea and all the heavenly bodies. 
And it is called mundus for the reason that it is always in 
motion. For no repose is granted to its elements. 

Chapter 30. On the form of the universe. 

1. The form of the universe is described as follows: as the 

1 Du Breul has Ptolemaeus, rex Alexandriae. 

2 The canons by which Ptolemy calculated the position of the planets. 
Isidore makes no further reference to them. 



144 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I44 

universe rises toward the region of the north, so it slopes 
away toward the south ; its head and face, as it were, is the 
east, and its back part the north. 

Chapter 31. On the heavens and their name. 

1. The philosophers have asserted that the heavens are 
round, in rapid motion, and made of fire, and that they are 
called by this name (coelum) because they have the forms of 
the stars fixed on them, like a dish with figures in relief 
(coelatum). 

2. For God decked them with bright lights, and filled them 
with the glowing circles of the sun and moon, and adorned 
them with the glittering images of flashing stars. 

Chapter 32. On the situation of the celestial sphere. 

1. The sphere of the heavens is rounded and its center is 
the earth, equally shut in on every side. This sphere, they 
say, has neither beginning nor end, for the reason that being 
rounded like a circle it is not easily perceived where it begins 
or where it ends. 

2. The philosophers have brought in the theory of seven 
heavens of the universe, that is, globes with planets moving 
harmoniously, and they assert that by their circles all things 
are bound together, and they think that these, being connected, 
and, as it were, fitted to one another, move backward and are 
borne with definite motions in contrary directions. 

Chapter 33. On the motion of the same. 

1. The sphere revolves on two axes, of which one is the 
northern, which never sets, and is called Boreas; the other is 
the southern, which is never seen, and is called Austronotius. 

2. On these two poles the sphere of heaven moves, they 
say, and with its motion the stars fixed in it pass from the 
east all the way around to the west, the septentriones near the 
point of rest describing smaller circles. 

Chapter 34. On the course of the same sphere. 

1. The sphere of heaven, [moving] from the east towards 
the west, turns once in a day and night, in the space of twenty- 



145] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 1 ^ 

four hours, within which the sun completes his swift revolv- 
ing course over the lands and under the earth. 

Chapter 35. On the swiftness of the heavens. 

1. With such swiftness is the sphere of heaven said to run, 
that if the stars did not run against its headlong course in 
order to delay it, it would destroy the universe. 

Chapter 36. On the axis of the heavens. 

1. The axis is a straight line north, which passes through 
the center of the globe of the sphere, and is called axis be- 
cause the sphere revolves on it like a wheel, or it may be 
because the Wain is there. 

Chapter 37. On the poles of the heavens. 

1. The poles are little circles which run on the axis. Of 
these one is the northern which never sets and is called 
Boreas; the other is the southern which is never seen, and is 
called Austronotius. 

Chapter 38. On the car dines of the heavens. 

1. The car dines of the heavens are the ends of the axis, 
and are called car dines (hinges) because the heavens turn on 
them, or because they turn like the heart {cor). 

Chapter 40. On the gates of the heavens. 

1. There are two gates of the heavens, the east and the 
west For by one the sun appears, by the other he retires. 

Chapter 42. On the four parts of the heavens. 

1. The climata of the heavens, that is, the tracts or parts, 
are four, of which the first part is the eastern, where some 
stars rise; the second, the western, where some stars set; the 
third, the northern, where the sun comes in the longer days; 
the fourth, the southern, where the sun comes in the time of 
the longer nights. 

4. There are also other climata of the heavens, seven in 
number, as if seven lines from east to west, under which the 
manners of men are dissimilar, and animals of different 
species appear; they are named from certain famous places, 
of which the first is Meroe; the second, Siene; the third, 



1 46 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I4 6 

Catachoras, that is Africa; the fourth, Rhodus; the fifth, 
Hellespontus ; the sixth, Mesopontus; the seventh, Boris- 
thenes. 1 

Chapter 43. On the hemispheres. 

1. A hemisphere is half a sphere. The hemisphere above 
the earth is that part of the heavens the whole of which is 
seen by us ; the hemisphere under the earth is that which can- 
not be seen as long as it is under the earth. 

Chapter 44. On the five circles of the heavens. 

1. There are five zones in the heavens, according to the 
differences of which certain parts of the earth are inhabitable, 
because of their moderate temperature, and certain parts are 
uninhabitable because of extremes of heat and cold. And 
these are called zones or circles for the reason that they exist 
on the circumference of the sphere. 

2. The first of these circles is called the Arctic, because 
the constellations of the Arcti are visible enclosed within it; 
the second is called the summer tropic, because in this circle 
the sun makes summer in northern regions, and does not pass 
beyond it but immediately returns, and from this it is called 
tropic. 

3. The third circle is called ioqfieptvgo, which is equivalent 
to equinoctialis in Latin, for the reason that when the sun 
comes to this circle it makes equal day and night (for loqpepivog 
means in Latin day equal to the night) and by this circle the 
sphere is seen to be equally divided. The fourth circle is 
called Antarctic, 2 for the reason that it is opposite to the 
circle which we call Arctic. 

4. The fifth circle is called the winter tropic (xecpepivog rpornKSg), 
which in the Latin is hiemalis or bramalis, because when the 
sun comes to this circle it makes winter for those who are in 
the north and summer for those who dwell in the parts of the 
south. 

1 For map showing the climata see Konrad Miller, Die altesten Welt- 
karten (Stuttgart, 1895), vol. iii, p. 127. 

2 This order is repeated in 13, 6. 



147] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES j^y 

Chapter 47. On the size of the sun. 

1. The size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and 
so from the moment when it rises it appears equally to east 
and west at the same time. 1 And as to its appearing to us 
about a cubit in width, it is necessary to reflect how far the 
sun is from the earth, which distance causes it to seem small 
to us. 

Chapter 43. On the size of the moon. 

I. The size of the moon also is said to be less than that of 
the sun. For since the sun is higher than the moon and still 
appears to us larger than the moon, if it should approach 
near to us it would be plainly seen to be much larger than 
the moon. Just as the sun is larger than the earth, so the 
earth is in some degree larger than the moon. 

Chapter 49. On the nature of the sun. 

1. The sun, being made of fire, heats to a whiter glow be- 
cause of the excessive speed of its circular motion. And its 
fire, philosophers declare, is fed with water, and it receives 
the virtue of light and heat from an element opposed to it. 
Whence we see that it is often wet and dewy. 

Chapter 50. On the motion of the sun. 

1. They say that the sun has a motion of its own and does 
not turn with the universe. For if it remained fixed in the 
heavens all days and nights would be equal, but since we see 
that it will set to-morrow in a different place from where it 
set yesterday, it is plain that it has a motion of its own and 
does not move with the universe. For it accomplishes its 
yearly orbits by varying courses, on account of the changes 
of the seasons. 

2. For going further to the south it makes winter, in order 
that the land may be enriched by winter rains and frosts. 
Approaching the north it restores the summer, in order that 
fruits may mature, and what is green in the damp weather 
may ripen in the heat. 

1 This passage indicates Isidore's belief in a flat earth. See pp. 51-54- 



148 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I4 g 

Chapter 51. What the sun does. 

1. The rising sun brings the day, the setting sun the night; 
for day is the sun above the earth, night is the sun beneath the 
earth. From the sun come the hours; from the sun, when it 
rises, the day ; from the sun, too, when it sets, the night ; from 
the sun the months and years are numbered; from the sun 
come the changes of the seasons. 

2. When it runs through the south it is nearer the earth; 
when it passes toward the north it is raised aloft. God has 
appointed for it different courses, places, and times for this 
reason, lest if it always remained in the same place all things 
should be consumed by its daily heat — just as Clement says: 
" It takes on different motions, by which the temperature of 
the air is moderated with a view to the seasons, and a regular 
order is observed in its seasonal changes and permutations* 
For when it ascends to the higher parts it tempers the spring, 
and when it comes to the summit of heaven it kindles the 
summer heats ; descending again, it gives autumn its tempera- 
ture. And when it returns to the lower circle it leaves to us 
the rigor of winter cold from the icy quarter of the heavens." 

Chapter 52. On the journey of the sun. 

1. The eastern sun holds its way through the south, and 
after it comes to the west and has bathed itself in ocean, it 
passes by unknown ways beneath the earth, and again returns 
to the east. 

Chapter 53. On the light of the moon. 

1. Certain philosophers hold that the moon has a light of 
its own, that one part of its globe is bright and another dark, 
and that turning by degrees it assumes different shapes. 
Others, on the contrary, assert that the moon has no light of 
its own, but is illumined by the rays of the sun. And there- 
fore it suffers an eclipse if the shadow of the earth is inter- 
posed between itself and the sun. 

Chapter 56. On the motion of the moon. 

1. The moon governs the times by alternately losing and 
recovering its light. It advances like the sun in an oblique, 



I49 ] ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES I4 q 

and not a vertical course, for this reason, that it may not be 
opposite the center of the earth and often suffer eclipse. For 
its orbit is near the earth. The waxing moon has its horns 
looking east ; the waning, west ; rightly, because it is going to 
set and lose its light. 

Chapter 57. On the nearness of the moon to the earth. 

1. The moon is nearer the earth than is the sun. Therefore 
having a narrow orbit it finishes its course more quickly. For 
it traverses in thirty days the journey the sun accomplishes 
in three hundred and sixty-five. Whence the ancients made 
the months depend on the moon, the years on the course of 
the sun. 

Chapter 58. On the eclipse of the sun. 

1. There is an eclipse of the sun as often as the thirtieth 
moon reaches the same line where the sun is passing, and, 
interposing itself, darkens the sun. For we see that the sun 
is eclipsed when the moon's orb comes opposite to it. 

Chapter 59. On the eclipse of the moon. 

1. There is an eclipse of the moon as often as the moon 
runs into the shadow of the earth. For it is thought to have 
no light of its own but to be illumined by the sun, whence it 
suffers eclipse if the shadow of the earth comes between it 
and the sun. The fifteenth moon suffers this until it passes 
out from the center and shadow of the interposing earth and 
sees the sun and is seen by the sun. 

Chapter 60. On the distinction between Stella, sidus, and 
astrum. 
1. Stellae, sidera, and astra differ from one another. For 
stella is any separate star. Sidera are made of very many 
stars, as Hyades, Pleiades. Astra are large stars as Orion, 
Bootes. But the writers confuse these names, putting astra 
for stella and stella for sidera. 1 

1 Isidore does not observe the distinctions he lays down here. He 
does not seem to have known that Orion and Bootes were constella- 
tions. 



150 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^q 

Chapter 61. On the light of the stars. 

I. Stars are said to have no light of their own, but to be 
lighted by the sun like the moon. 

Chapter 62. On the position of the stars. 

1. Stars are motionless, and being fixed are carried along 
by the heavens in perpetual course, and they do not set by 
day but are obscured by the brilliance of the sun. 

Chapter 63. On the courses of the stars. 

1. Stars either are borne along or have motion. Those are 
borne along which are fixed in the heavens and revolve with 
the heavens. Certain have motion, like the planets, that is, 
the wandering stars, which go through roaming courses, but 
with definite limitations. 

Chapter 64. On the varying courses of the stars. 

1. According as stars are carried on different orbits of the 
heavenly planets, certain ones rise earlier and set later, and 
certain rising later come to their setting earlier. Others rise 
together and do not set at the same time. But all in their own 
time revolve in a course of their own. 

Chapter 65. On the distances of the stars. 

I. Stars are at different distances from the earth and there- 
fore, being of unequal brightness, they are more or less plain 
to the sight; many are larger than the bright ones which we 
see, but being further away they appear small to us. 

Chapter 66. On the circular number of the stars. 

1. There is a circular number of the stars by which it is 
said to be known in what time each and every star finishes its 
orbit, whether in longitude or latitude. 1 

2. For the moon is said to complete its orbit in eight years, 
Mercury in twenty, Lucifer in nine, the sun in nineteen, 
Pyrois in fifteen, Phaeton in twelve, Saturn in thirty. When 

1 Du Breul has in addition : laiitudo intelligitur per signiferum, 
longitudo per proprium excursum. 



151] ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES l $ I 

these are finished, they return to a repetition of their orbits 
through the same constellations and regions. 

3. Certain stars being hindered by the rays of the sun be- 
come irregular, either retrograde or stationary, as the poet 
relates, saying : 

Sol tempora dividit aevi 
Mutat nocte diem^ radiisque potentibus astra 
Ire vetat, cursusque vagos statione moratur. 

Chapter 67. On the wandering stars. 

1. Certain stars are called planetae, that is, wandering, be- 
cause they hasten around through the whole universe with 
varying motions. . . . 

Chapter 68. 

1. Praecedentia or antegradatio of stars is when a star 
seems to be making its usual course and [really] is somewhat 
ahead of it. 

Chapter 69. 

1. Remotio or retrogradatio of stars is when a star, while 
moving on its regular orbit, seems at the same time to be mov- 
ing backward. 

Chapter 70. 

1. The status of stars means that while a star is continuing 
its proper motion it nevertheless seems in some places to stand 
still. 

Chapter 71. On the names of stars. 

3. Stellae is derived from stare, because the stars always 
remain (stant) fixed in the heavens and do not fall. As 
to our seeing stars fall, as it were, from heaven, they are 
not stars but little bits of fire that have fallen from the 
ether, and this happens when the wind, blowing high, carries 
along with it fire from the ether, which as it is carried along 
gives the appearance of falling stars. For stars cannot fall; 
they are motionless (as has been said above) and are fixed 
in the heavens and carried around with them. 



152 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x ^ 2 

16. A comet is so-called because it spreads light from itself 
as if it were hair {comas). And when this kind of star ap- 
pears it indicates pestilence, famine, or war. 

17. Comets are called in the Latin crinitae because they 
have a trail of flames resembling hair (in modum crinium). 
The Stoics say there are over thirty of them, and certain as- 
trologers have written down their names and qualities. 

20. The planets are stars which are not fixed in the heavens 
like the rest, but move along in the air. . . . Sometimes they 
move towards the south, sometimes towards the north, gener- 
ally in a direction opposite to that of the universe, sometimes 
with it, and their Greek names are Phaeton, Phaenon, Pyrois, 
Hesperus, Stilbon. 

21. To these the Romans have given the names of their 
gods, that is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury. De- 
ceiving themselves and wishing to deceive [others] into wor- 
ship of these gods, who had bestowed upon them somewhat 
in accordance with the desire of the world, they pointed to 
the stars in heaven, saying that that was Jove's star, that 
Mercury's, and the empty idea arose. This erroneous belief 
the devil cherished, but Christ destroyed. 

22. Moreover as to the constellations which are given names 
by the heathen, in which the likeness of living creatures is 
traced by means of the stars, like Arctos, Aries, Taurus, 
Libra, and others, they who first discerned constellations in a 
number of stars were influenced by superstitious vanity and 
imagined a bodily form, giving them, because of certain rea- 
sons, the likenesses and names of their gods. 

23. For they named Aries, the first constellation — to which, 
as to Libra, they assign the middle line of the universe x — 
after Jupiter Ammon, on whose head image makers fix the 
horns of a ram (arietis cornua). 

24. This the heathen set as the first among the constella- 
tions because in the month of March, which is the beginning 
of the year, they say the sun is moving in that constellation. 

1 The celestial equator. 



153] 0N THE F0UR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES ^3 

26. Cancer, too, they so named because when the sun comes 
to that constellation in the month of June, it begins to move 
backward in the manner of a crab (in modum cancri), and 
brings in the shorter days ; for in this creature front and rear 
are indistinguishable and it advances either way, so that its 
fore part may be behind and its back part before. 

32. Moreover Aquarius and Pisces they named from the 
rainy season, because heavier rains fall in winter when the 
sun turns at these constellations. And it is a wonderful folly 
of the heathen that they have raised to the heavens not only 
fish, but rams also, and he-goats and bulls, she-bears and dogs, 
crabs and scorpions. They have also placed among the stars 
of heaven an eagle and a swan, in memory of Jove, because 
of the myths about him. 

33. They believed, too, that Perseus and his wife Androm- 
eda were received into the heavens after their death, so they 
marked out likenesses of them in the stars, and did not blush 
to call them by their names. 

37. But by whatever fashion of superstition these are 
named by men, they are nevertheless stars, which God made 
at the beginning of the universe and ordained to mark the 
seasons with regular motion. 

38. Therefore observations of these constellations, or na- 
tivities, or the rest of the superstition that attaches itself to 
the observance of the stars — that is, to a knowledge of the 
fates — and is doubtless opposed to our faith, ought to be 
ignored by Christians in such a way that it would seem they 
had not been written. 

39. But a good many, enticed by the fairness and bright- 
ness of the constellations, have in their blindness fallen into 
the errors of the stars, so that they endeavor to foreknow 
future events by the noxious computations that are called 
mathesis; but not only the teachers of the Christian religion, 
but also Plato and Aristotle and others of the heathen, moved 
by truth, condemned them with unanimous opinion, saying 
that confusion as to [future] things was produced rather 
from such a belief. 



I 5 4 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I54 

40. For if, as they say, men are driven by the compulsion 
of their birth to various kinds of acts, why should the good 
deserve praise, or the evil feel the vengeance of the law. . . . 

41. This succession of the seven secular disciplines was 
terminated in astronomy by the philosophers for this purpose 
forsooth, that it might free souls, entangled by secular wis- 
dom, from earthly matters, and set them at meditation upon 
the things on high. 



BOOK IV 
ON MEDICINE 1 

INTRODUCTION 

The Greek science of medicine was one which reached 
a high degree of development. As early as the fifth cen- 
tury B. C. it appears in the school of Hippocrates, divested 
of nearly all trace of its origin in superstition and magic, 
and largely relying on careful observation and interpreta- 
tion of symptoms. This school already possessed a con- 
siderable body of recorded observations. At Alexandria, 
later, further progress was made, especially in the subject 
of anatomy. At this time the dissection — and even vivisec- 
tion — of the human body was practiced, though there are 
few traces of it earlier, and later it was forbidden. The 
last great land-mark in the history of ancient medicine is 
to be found in the works of Galen (second century A. D.) 
who summed up, extended, and interpreted the medical 
knowledge of preceding times. 

In medicine, however, as in Greek science generally; 
theoretical and philosophical elements often prevailed to 
the detriment of the pragmatical. Examples of this are to 
be seen in the theory of the four humors, first found in the 
Hippocratic writings ; in the belief of the Methodist school, 

1 Subjects of medical interest are treated also in book xi (parts of the 
body, monstrous births, etc.), in book xii (healing springs), and in 
book xxii (diet). There is also a chapter (39) on pestilence in De 
Natura Rerum. 

1553 155 



156 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^6 

which held that disease consisted in the contraction and re- 
laxation of the pores (n6poi); and in the doctrines of the 
Pneumatic school, which maintained that health and dis- 
ease resulted from the influence of the universal soul {nvevpay 
A re-action against this tendency is evidenced by the em- 
pirics, who professed to reject all general notions and to 
rely on experience alone. However, the increasing pre- 
dominance of the theoretical is shown in the case of Galen, 
who secured his ascendency over succeeding ages by his ex- 
travagant theoretical system rather than by his really great 
practical knowledge. 

No contribution to medicine was made by the Romans. 
Although the profession appeared among them in the sec- 
ond century B. C, it remained a thing apart, in the hands 
of Greek physicians. 1 Of the three chief writers on the 
subject in the Latin language, two, Celsus and Pliny, were 
not physicans but encyclopedists, who were necessarily 
compilers rather than scientists. 2 The only writer of im- 
portance who approached his work from a professional 
standpoint was Caelius Aurelianus, and his book is of im- 
portance chiefly because its Greek original is lost. 3 This 
neglect of medicine is explained in part by the fact that 
physicians stood low in the social scale. Another more 
powerful influence was the increasing fashionableness of 
Oriental religions with their superstition and addiction to 
magic practices. Toward the close of the empire the de- 
cline was rapid in medicine as in other fields. Abridge- 
ments, which cut down quality unconsciously as much as 
they did quantity consciously, held the field. Itinerant 
quacks and " folk-medicine " gradually ousted the lay pro- 

1 Galen was one of these. 

2 Max Neuberger, Geschichte der Medizin (Stuttgart, 1906-1911), vol. 
i, pp. 310-321. 

3 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 61 et seq. 



157] ON MEDICIXE I57 

fession until finally what little science remained was in the 
hands of priests and monks, who needed a smattering of 
the subject for the people of their parishes, and the inmates 
of monasteries and hospitals. 1 

Isidore does not say for what purpose he wrote his De 
Medicina, whether to serve as a text-book to aid in the 
education of the clergy in the way indicated above, or 
merely in the spirit of the encyclopedist. A number of 
considerations point strongly to the former conclusion. In 
the first place, medicine is placed in juxtaposition with the 
seven liberal arts, and is separated from subjects more 
nearly akin to it. Secondly, the attitude which Isidore 
displays in speaking of medicine is one which remembers 
that this subject was once classed with the liberal arts. He 
feels called upon to explain why " the art of medicine is 
not included among the liberal disciplines ". and his ex- 
planation is one drawn from the pedagogical sphere; he 
tells us that medicine is " a second philosophy ", by which 
he means to say that it belongs to the highest stage of edu- 
cation, but plays therein a minor part. Finally, we must 
remember that Cassiodorus, whose comprehensive plan of 
education had great influence with Isidore, had recognized 
the need of medical knowledge in the education of the 
clergy, as shown in his chapter " On monks having the 
care of the infirm ". 

It is not known what were the immediate sources of Isi- 
dore's De Medicina. The ultimate authority for his ac- 
count of diseases is the work of the Methodist Caelius 
Aurelianus, whose eight books containing a classification 
of diseases into acute and chronic are reproduced by Isi- 
dore in two chapters that occupy the greater part of the 
space that he devoted to medicine. 

1 Xeuberger, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 240-278 for an account of medicine 
in the early middle ages. 



158 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^g 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On medicine. 

1. Medicine is that which guards or restores the health of 
the body, and its subject-matter deals with diseases and 
wounds. 

2. And so it includes not only those things which are pre- 
sented in the art (ars) of those who are called medici in the 
proper sense, but food, drink, and covering as well; in short, 
all the guarding and defence by which our body is protected 
against blows and accidents from the outside. 

Chapter 2. On its name. 

1. Its name is believed to have been given to medicine from 
modus, that is, moderation, so that not enough but a little be 
used. For nature is made sorrowful by much and rejoices 
in the moderate. Whence also they who drink in quantities 
and without ceasing of herb juices (pigmenta) and antidotes, 
are troubled. For all immoderation brings not welfare but 
danger. 

Chapter 3. On the founders of medicine. 

1. Apollo is called among the Greeks the author and 
founder of the art of medicine. His son, Aesculapius, en- 
larged it by his fame and work. But after Aesculapius per- 
ished by a thunder-bolt, the business of curing is said to have 
been forbidden and the art disappeared with its author. 

2. And it remained unknown for nearly five hundred years 
down to the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. Then 
Hippocrates, born in the island of Cos, his father being Ascle- 
pius, brought it back to the light of day. 

Chapter 4. On the three schools (haereses) of medicine. 

1. And so these three men founded as many schools. The 
first, Methodical was established by Apollo, and it follows 

1 This school was really founded in the first century B. C. According 
to it disease consists in a contraction or relaxation of the pores (strictus 
status or laxus status). Nothing but the supposed general condition 
of the body was of importance. Neuberger, Geschichte der Medizin, 
vol. 1, pp. 303-309. 



159] ON MEDICINE T $g 

remedies and charms. The second, Empirical that is, relying 
on experience, was established by Aesculapius, which depends 
not on the interpretation of symptoms, but on experience 
alone. The third, Logical that is, rational, was invented by 
Hippocrates. 

2. For the latter, separating the qualities of ages, districts, 
and diseases, examined the practice of the art in a rational 
way. The Empirici, then, follow experience alone ; the Logici 
add reason to experience; the Methodici observe neither the 
elements, nor seasons, nor ages, nor causes, but the substances 
of diseases alone. 

Chapter 5. On the four humors of the body. 

1. Health is the integrity of the body and the compound 
(temperantia) made by nature from hot and moist which is 
the blood, whence also it has been named sanitas, as it were 
sanguinis status (state of the blood). 

2. Under the general name of morbus (disease) all dis- 
orders of the body are embraced, to which the ancients gave 
the name of morbus in order to indicate by the very name the 
power of death {mortis) which arises from it. Between 
health and disease the mean is cure, and unless it harmonizes 
with the disease it does not lead to health. 

3. All diseases arise from the four humors, that is, from 
blood, bile, black bile, and phlegm. Just as there are four ele- 
ments so also there are four humors, and each humor imitates 
its element: blood, air; bile, fire; black bile, earth; phlegm, 
water. There are four humors, as four elements, which pre- 
serve our bodies. 

4. Sanguis* (blood) took its name from a Greek source, 

1 A school that appeared in the third century B. C, and corresponded 
in medicine to the skeptical movement in philosophy. All a priori 
reasoning was rejected. Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 276-284. 

2 The classical school of medicine founded by Hippocrates. Isidore 
fails to mention the Pneumatici and the Eclectici (ibid., vol. 1, pp. 327- 
336), other prominent schools of medicine. 

3 The derivation which Isidore had in mind was probably t,vv (to live). 



160 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ : 6 

because it invigorates, sustains and gives life to the body. 
Cholera * (bile) the Greeks named because it is ended in the 
space of one day, whence it was named cholera, that is, felli- 
cula, that is, effusion of bile (fel). For the Greeks call bile 
xokii. 

5. Melancholia (black bile) is named because an abundance 
of bile has been mixed with the dregs of black blood. . . . 

6. Sanguis in the Latin is so-called because it is suavis, 
whence men in whom sanguis is predominant are pleasant and 
bland. 

7. Phlegma they have named because it is cold. For the 
Greeks call cold <pteypova. According to these four humors 
the well are governed, and from them the diseases of the in- 
firm arise. For when they have grown too great beyond the 
course of nature, they cause illnesses. 

8. From blood and bile acute disorders come, which the 
Greeks call btjea- from phlegm and black bile troubles of long 
standing, which the Greeks call xpdvia. 

Chapter 6. On acute diseases. 

1. Oxea is acute disease which either quickly passes or 
more quickly kills, as pleurisy, phrensy, for bi-v in Greek means 
swift and sharp, xp^ia is prolonged bodily disease which 
lingers through many seasons, as gout, phthisis. . . . Certain 
disorders have received their names from causes proper to 
them. 

2. Febris (fever) is derived from fervor, for it is an excess 
of heat. 

3. Frenzy is so-called because the mind is affected, since 
the Greeks call the mind <j>piveg, or else because they gnash 
(infrendant) with the teeth, for frendere means to strike the 
teeth together. It is excitement with exasperation and de- 
mentia caused by the power of bile. 

17. Pestilence is a contagion, and when it seizes one it 
quickly passes to more. It is produced from a corruption of 

1 The sentence is a confused one. Isidore probably had in mind the 
derivation of cholera from x°^V and p£o>. 



l6l] ON MEDICINE l ( )l 

the air, and makes its way by penetrating into the inward 
parts. Although this is generally caused by the powers of the 
air, still it is certainly not caused against the will of Omnipo- 
tent God. ... It is a disease so acute that it affords no time 
to hope for life or death, but a sudden weakness and death 
come at the same moment. 

Chapter 7. On chronic diseases. 

3. Scotoma took its name from an accidental quality, be- 
cause it brings a sudden darkness to the eyes along with a 
whirling {vertigo) of the head. Now there is a whirling as 
often as the wind rises and starts the dust going round and 
round. 

4. So too in man's head the air passages x and the veins 
produce a windiness from the resolving of moisture 2 and 
make a whirling in his eyes whence vertigo is named. 

5. Epilepsy took its name because while seizing the mind it 
also holds the body. For the Greeks call seizure km^ta. 
And it comes from the melancholy humor whenever it be- 
comes abundant and has turned toward the head. This dis- 
order is also called caduca (the falling sickness), because the 
sick man falls and suffers from spasms. 

6. The common herd call these also lunatici because their 
madness 3 comes upon them according to the course of the 
moon. . . . 

Chapter 8. On diseases that appear on the surface of the 
body. 
11. Leprosy is a scaly roughness of the skin, like lepidus 
(pepper- wort), whence it took its name, and its color now 
turns to black, now to white, now to red. On the body of a 
man leprosy is diagnosed in this way, if a varied color ap- 

1 Arteriae. Compare " Sanguis per venas in omne corpus diffunditur 
et spiritus per arterias." Cicero, N. D., 2, 55, 138. 

2 Referring to the idea that the elements could pass into one another. 
See p. 60. 

3 Du Breul has insania daemonum. 



162 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [jfo 

pears here and there between sound parts of the skin, or if it 
spreads everywhere in such a way as to make all of one un- 
natural color. 

12. The morbus elephantiacus 1 is so called from the re- 
semblance to an elephant, whose naturally hard and rough 
skin gave the name to the disease among men, because it 
makes the surface of the body like the hide of an elephant; 
or it may be because it is a great disorder, like the animal 
itself from which it has derived its name. 

Chapter 9. On remedies and medicines. 

1. The curative power of medicine must not be despised. 
For we remember that Isaiah sent something of medicinal 
nature to Hezekiah when he was sick, and Paul the apostle 
said a little wine was good for Timothy. 

3. There are three kinds of cures in all. The first is the 
dietetic; the second, the pharmaceutical; the third, the sur- 
gical. Diet (diaeta) is the observance of the law of life. 
Pharmacy is curing by medicines. Surgery is cutting with the 
knife; for with the knife is cut away that which does not 
feel the healing of medicines. . . . 

5. Every cure is wrought either by contraries or by likes. 
By contraries, as cold by warm and dry by moist, just as in 
man pride cannot be cured except by humility. 

6. By likes, as a round bandage is put on a round wound, 
or an oblong one on an oblong wound. For the very bandage 
is not the same for all wounds, but like is fitted to like. . . . 

7. Antidotum in the Greek means in the Latin ex contrario 
datum. For contraries are cured by contraries in the medical 
system. On the other hand likes are cured by likes, as for 
example, nucpa which means bitters because its taste is bitter. 
It received a suitable name because the bitterness of disease is 
dispelled by its bitterness. 

1 A kind of leprosy. 



163] ON MEDICINE x 6 3 

Chapter 13. On the beginning of medicine. 1 

1. Inquiry is made by certain why the art of medicine is 
not included among the liberal disciplines. Because of this, 
that they embrace separate subjects, but medicine embraces 
all. For the physician is commanded to know grammar, in 
order to be able to understand and set forth what he reads. 

2. In like manner rhetoric, too, that he may be able to de- 
fine by true arguments the diseases which he treats. More- 
over logic, to scrutinize and cure the causes of infirmities by 
the aid of reason. So, too, arithmetic, on account of the num- 
ber of hours in paroxysms and of the days in periods. 

3. In the same manner geometry, on account of the quali- 
ties of districts and the situations of places, in respect to 
which it teaches what one ought to observe. Moreover, 
music will not be unknown to him, for there are many things 
that are read of as accomplished by this discipline in the case 
of sick men, as it is read of David that he saved Saul from an 
unclean spirit by the art of melody. The physician Ascle- 
piades, too, restored one who was subject to frenzy to his 
former health by music. 

4. Lastly, he will know astronomy, by which to contemplate 
the system of the stars and the change of the seasons, for as 
a certain physician says, our bodies change too, along with the 
qualities of the heavens. Hence it is that medicine is called 
" a second philosophy ". For both disciplines claim the whole 
man. For as by one the soul is cured, so is the body by the 
other. 

x De initio medicinae. 



BOOK V 
ON LAWS 1 

INTRODUCTION 

There was a marked difference between the develop- 
ment of law and that of the other subjects so far treated 
by Isidore in the Etymologies. The latter were of Greek 
origin, and, with the exception of rhetoric, they appeared 
as strangers in the Roman environment and never formed 
an integral part of Roman culture. Instead, they suffered 
from continuous decay, and by the time of the disintegra- 
tion of the Roman state they were reduced to such a con- 
dition that the " fall of Rome " meant nothing to them. 
On the other hand, law was an indigenous product of 
Roman society, upon which the Roman intellect had ex- 
pended its greatest and most successful efforts, and al- 
though it inevitably shared in the general intellectual de- 
terioration of the time, and showed a marked decline after 
the period of the great jurists, the beginning of its rapid 
decay is coincident in each section of western Europe with 
the close of Roman rule. Thus " the fall of Rome " 
played much the same part in the history of law as the 
transition from a Greek to a Roman environment had done 
for the bulk of the intellectual possession of the ancient 
civilization. After this event law was on terms of equality 
with the other branches of knowledge, and within two 

1 The De Legibus constitutes Isidore's formal account of law. In 
bk. ii a chapter is devoted to the subject of law as a sub-division of 
rhetoric; it consists of definitions of general terms. In bk. ix there 
are chapters on citizens, and on degrees of kinship, which have a legal 
bearing. Cf. also bk. xviii, 15. 

164 [164 



165] 0N LAWS 165 

centuries, as judged by its presentation in the Etymologies, 
it was reduced to as low an estate as they. 

Isidore's De Legibus is divided into two distinct parts. 
The first is of a general nature, and embraces such topics 
as law-givers, jus civile, jus gentium, jus naturale, why 
laws are made, and what character a law ought to have. 
The second part is more specific; it treats of legal instru- 
ments, the law of property, crimes, and punishments. The 
whole forms a scholastic conglomerate of elements derived 
from every stage in the development of Roman law and 
exhibits a point of view that is philological and Christian 
as much as legal. 

Because of its importance in the history of law, this book 
of the Etymologies has been subjected to more detailed 
study than any other, but in spite of this its sources have 
not been clearly determined. In addition to the Scriptures 
and Isidore's authorities on word derivation, he is believed 
to have drawn on the Breviarium Alaricianum, the Theo- 
dosian code, the text-books of Gaius and Ulpian, and the 
Sentences of Paulus. Although the Justinian code was is- 
sued a century before the compilation of the Etymologies, 
it seems improbable that Isidore made any use of it, or had 
even heard of it. 1 

1 Considering the intellectual stagnation of the time, it seems quite 
possible that the Justinian code was unheard of wherever it was not 
actually the law of the land. Vinogradoff gives the conclusion of 
modern scholarship as to this when he says {Roman Law in Medieval 
Europe, London, 1909, p. 8): "The Corpus Juris of Justinian, which 
contains the main body of law for later ages, including our own, was 
accepted and even known only in the East and in those parts of Italy 
which had been reconquered by Justinian's generals. The rest of the 
western provinces still clung to the tradition of the preceding period, 
culminating in the official code of Theodosius II (A. D. 437)." Com- 
pare also Conrat, Die Epitome Exactis Regibus, Introd., pp. 248-257; 
Flach, Droit Romain au Moyen Age (Paris, 1890), especially pp. 52-57. 
Conrat, in his Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Romischen 



1 66 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x 66 

The purpose of the De Legibus was, no doubt, to serve 
as a text-book. 1 The amount of space given to it, which 
is about the average of that allotted to each of the liberal 
arts, and the fact that it treats of law in a general way, 
point to this conclusion. Its position in the Etymologies. 
following, with Medicine, immediately after the liberal 
arts, is also an indication of its educational character. The 
best proof of this, however, is found in the number of 
separate manuscripts in which the De Legibus is repro- 
duced in a catechetical form. 2 At least eight of these are 
in existence, and the earliest of them is attributed to the 
ninth century. 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter i. On law-givers. 

i. Moses first of all set forth the divine laws in the sacred 
writings for the Hebrew people. King Phoroneus was the 
first to establish laws and courts for the Greeks. 

2. Mercurius Trismegistus first gave laws to the Egyptians. 
Solon first legislated for the Athenians. Lycurgus first made 
rules of law for the Lacedaemonians and pretended Apollo's 
authority for them. 

Rechts in Fruiter en Mittelalter, pp. 150-153, maintains, first, that there 
is no trace of evidence elsewhere in Isidore's works, of a knowledge 
of the existence of the Justinian code; and, second, that the internal 
evidence in the De Legibus points to the use of other sources. See 
also Urefia, Historia Critica de la Literatura luridica Espanola (Mad- 
rid, 1897), vol 1, p. 294. 

The De Legibus should not be regarded as a text-book for a law 
school, but for the subject of law as forming a minor part of the 
preparation of a priest. See Introd., p. 87, and Flach, op, cit., the 
fourth section of which (pp. 104-128) deals with the teaching of law 
from the sixth to the eleventh century. 

2 For an account of separate MSS. of Isidore's De Legibus (often 
containing also legal matter from bks. ii, ix and xviii), see Joseph 
Tardif, Un Abrege Juridique des Etymologies d' Isidore de Seville in 
Melanges lulien Havet (Paris, 1895). 



167] 0N LAWS 167 

3. Numa Pompilius, who succeeded Romulus in the king- 
dom, was the first to give laws to the Romans. Later, when 
the people could not endure their quarrelsome magistrates 
they appointed decemvirs to write the laws, and they trans- 
lated the laws from the books of Solon into the Latin lan- 
guage, and set them up on twelve tables. 

4. These men were A. Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextius, 
Spur. Viturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpitius, P. Curia- 
tius, T. Romilius, Sp. Postumius. These were the decemvirs 
chosen to write the laws. 

5. The consul Pompeius was the first who wished to ar- 
range the laws systematically, but he did not persevere, 
through fear of detractors. Then Caesar began to do it, but 
he was slain. 

6. By degrees the old laws became obsolete through time 
and neglect ; but a mention of them seems necessary although 
they are not in use now. 

7. The new laws began with the emperor Constantine and 
the rest who followed him, but they were confused and in dis- 
order. Later, in imitation of Gregorianus and Hermogeni- 
anus, the younger Theodosius arranged a code of constitu- 
tions from the time of Constantine, under the title of each 
emperor, which he called Theodosian from his own name. 

Chapter 2. On laws human and divine. 

1. All laws are either divine or human. Divine laws depend 
on nature, human laws on customs; and so the latter differ, 
since different laws please different peoples. Divine law is 
fas; human law is jus. To pass through another's property 
is of divine but not of human law. 

Chapter 3. On the difference between jus, leges, mores. 

1. Jus is the general term and lex is a kind of jus. Jus is 
so-called because it is just (justum). All jus is made up of 
laws and customs. 

2. Lex is the written ordinance. Mos is custom approved 
by its antiquity, or unwritten lex. For lex is derived from 
legere (to read), because it is written. 



1 68 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^g 

3. Mos is old custom and is drawn merely from mores. 
Consuetudo (custom) is a sort of jus established by mores, 
which is taken instead of lex when lex fails. And it makes 
no difference whether it depends on writing or reason, since 
reason commends written law also. 

4. Moreover if lex is in accordance with reason, all that is 
in accordance with reason will be lex, as far as it agrees with 
religion, is in harmony with knowledge, and is beneficial for 
salvation. And consuetudo is so-called because it is in com- 
mon use. 

Chapter 4. On jus naturale. 

1. Jus is either natural, or civil, or universal (jus gentium). 
Jus naturale is what is common to all peoples, and what is ob- 
served everywhere by the instinct of nature rather than by 
any ordinance, as the marriage of man and woman, the be- 
getting and rearing of children, the common possession of 
all, 1 the one freedom of all, the acquisition of those things 
that are taken in the air or sea or on the land. 

2. Likewise the restoring of property entrusted or lent, the 
repelling of violence by force. For this, or whatever is like 
this, is nowhere considered unjust, but natural and fair. 

Chapter 5. On jus civile. 

1. Jus civile is what each people or state has enacted as its 
own law, for human and divine reasons. 

Chapter 6. On jus gentium. 

1. Jus gentium is the seizing, building, and fortifying of 
settlements, wars, captivities, servitudes, postliminies, treaties, 
peaces, truces, the obligation not to violate an ambassador, 
the prohibition of intermarriage with aliens. And [it is 
called] jus gentium because nearly all nations observe it. 

Chapter 7. On jus militare. 

1. Jus militare is the ceremony of beginning war, the obli- 
gation in making a treaty, the going out against the enemy 
when the signal is given, and the joining of battle; likewise 

1 Communis omnium possessio. 



169] ON LAWS !69 

the retreat when the signal is given; likewise the punishment 
of a soldier's fault if a post should be deserted. Likewise 
the amount of pay, the grades of office, and the honor of re- 
wards, as when a crown or a necklace is given. 

2. Likewise the determination of the booty, and the just 
division according to rank of persons and labors undergone, 
likewise the share of the commander. 

Chapter 8. On jus publicum. 

i. Jus publicum has to do with sacred things, and priests 
and magistrates. 

Chapter 9. On jus quiritium. 

1. Jus quiritium is the law proper to the Romans, by which 
none is bound but the Quirites, that is, the Romans, as in re- 
gard to inheritances, declarations of entry upon inheritances, 
guardianships, acquiring by prescription; which laws are 
found among no other people, but they are proper to the 
Romans and made for them alone. 

2. The jus quiritium is made up of laws, plebiscites, decrees 
of the senate, constitutions and edicts of emperors and opin- 
ions of jurists. 

Chapter 10. On lex. 

1. Lex is the enactment of the people, by which the elders, 
together with the plebeians, passed some law. 

Chapter 11. On plebiscites. 

1. Plebiscites (scita) are what the common people alone 
enact. . . . 

Chapter 12. On the senatus consultum. 

1. A senatus consultum is that which the senators alone 
determine in council for the people. 

Chapter 13. On the constitution or edict. 

1. A constitution or edict is what the king or emperor en- 
acts or proclaims. 

Chapter 14. On the responses of the jurists (responsa pru- 
dentum). 
I. They are the responses which the jurisconsults are said 



I JO ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ T j 

to make to men who consult them. From this the responses 
of Paulus were so named. For there were certain wise men 
and judges of equity who composed and published institu- 
tions of civil law, by which they settled the suits and conten- 
tions of disputants. 

Chapter 15. On consular and tribunitian laws. 

1. Certain laws are named from those who secured their 
enactment, as consular, tribunitian, Julian, Cornelian. Papius 
and Poppaeus, consules suffecti x under Caesar Octavianus, 
carried a law which was called from their names Papia Pop- 
paea, offering rewards to fathers for rearing children. 

2. Under the same emperor, Falcidius, a tribune of the 
people, carried a law that no one should bequeath property in 
such a way that a fourth, at least, should not remain for the 
heirs. And it was named the lex Falcidia from him. Aquilius 
also secured the passage of a law which is called Aquilia to 
the present time. 

Chapter 16. On the lex satyr a. 

I. A lex satyr a is one which speaks at the same time of 
many things, being so called from the abundance of things, 
as it were from saturitas (fullness) ; whence to write satire is 
to compose poems with varied contents, as those of Horace, 
Juvenal, and Persius. 

Chapter 17. On the Rhodian laws. 

1. The Rhodian laws are the laws of commerce on the sea, 
being so called from the island of Rhodes where was a great 
trade in ancient times. 

Chapter 18. On privileges. 

1. Privileges (privilegia) are laws applying to individuals, 
private laws, as it were. For privilegium is so called because 
it is applied to a private person (in privato feratur). 

Chapter 19. What law can do. 

1. Every law either permits something, as that a brave man 
should compete for a prize, or forbids, as that no one should 

1 Holding the consulate for part of the year only. 



171] ON LAWS 17l 

be allowed to ask the sacred maidens in marriage, or punishes, 
as that he who has committed murder should suffer capital 
punishment. For human life is governed by the reward or 
punishment of the law. 1 

Chapter 20. Why law was made. 

1. Laws were made in order that the boldness of men may 
be checked by fear of them, and innocence be safe among the 
wicked, and the power of harm bridled among the wicked by 
the dread of punishment. 

Chapter 21. What law ought to be. 

1. Law will be honorable, just, possible, according to nature, 
according to the custom of the country, adapted to the place 
and time, necessary, useful, clear also, lest it contain anything 
in its obscurity that tends to fraud, drawn up for no one's 
private advantage, but for the common good of all citizens. 

Chapter 24. On legal instruments. 

1. Voluntas (will) is the general name for all legal instru- 
ments, and it has received this name because it issues from 
free will, not from compulsion. 

2. Testamentum (will) is so named because, unless the tes- 
tator dies, what is written in it cannot be established or 
known, since it is closed and sealed; and it is called testa- 
mentum because it is not in effect until the burial of the tes- 
tator (testatoris monumentum) ; whence the Apostle says: 
Testamentum in mortuis confirmatur. 

•3. Testamentum has not only this meaning in the Holy 
Scriptures, that it is in effect only when the testators are dead, 
but they also called every agreement {pactum et placitum) 
testamentum ; for Laban and Jacob made a testamentum 
which was certainly to be in effect while they were living. 
And in the Psalms is read: Adversum te testamentum dispo- 
suerunt; and many others of the sort. 

4. The tabulae of a will are so called because not only wills 
but letters were written on hewn tabulae (boards) before 
paper and parchment were used. Whence letter-carriers are 
called tabularii. 

1 Reading legis for eius. See 2, 10. 



172 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ T y 2 

5. The testament of the civil law is made valid by the sig- 
nature of five witnesses. 

6. The testament of the praetorian law is sealed with the 
seals of seven witnesses ; the former testament is made in the 
presence of citizens, and from that is called civile; the latter 
in the presence of the praetors, and thence is of the prae- 
torian law. 

7. A testamentum holographum is one wholly written and 
signed in the hand- writing of the maker. From this it got its 
name. For the Greeks use the word blov for whole, and 
ypa^-fj for writing. 

8. A testament has no legal force if its maker has forfeited 
his civil rights, or if it has not been made in due form. 

9. A testament is inofhciosum where an attempt has been 
made to disinherit the children and recourse has been had to 
persons outside [the family] without regard to the duty of 
natural affection. 1 

10. The testamentum ruptum is so named because it is 
made void through the birth of a posthumous child who is 
neither disinherited nor made an heir by name. 

11. A testament is suppressed when it is not publicly made 
known, to the injury of heirs or legatees or freedmen; and 
although it is not kept secret, it nevertheless is thought to be 
suppressed if it is not made known to the aforesaid persons. 

12. Nuncupatio (nuncupative will) is when the testator 
reads the will aloud, saying : " These things I thus give and 
bequeath as they are written on these tablets and on this wax ; 
and do you Roman citizens be my witness ", and this is called 
nuncupatio. For nuncupare means to name and confirm 
openly. 

13. The jus liber orum is the right of childless couples to 
name each other as heir in the place of children. 

23. Emptio (purchase) and venditio (sale) is an exchange 
of goods and a contract arising from agreement. 

24. Emptio (purchase) is so called because it is a me tibi 
(from me to you) ; venditio is as it were venundinatio, that 
is, from nundinae (market day). 

1 See Muirhead, The Law of Rome, p. 249. 



173] 0N TIMES 173 

2J. Donatio usufructuaria is so named because the giver 
retains the usufruct of the thing, the title vesting in him to 
whom it has been given. 

Chapter 25. On property (rebus). 

3. Res is derived from possessing rightly (recte) ; jus 
from possessing justly (juste). . . . What is wickedly pos- 
sessed is not the owner's. He possesses wickedly who uses his 
own wickedly or takes possession of another's. . . . He who 
is captured by greed is possessed, not possessing. 

4. Bona belong to the honorable or noble, and they are 
called bona so that they may not have a base use but men may 
use them for good things. 

5. Peculium belongs properly to minors or slaves. For 
peculium is that which the father or master allows his son or 
slave to treat as his own. . . . 



ON TIMES 1 

INTRODUCTION 

To the early and medieval Christian chronology was 
a subject of absorbing interest. For him the course of the 
world's history was authoritatively laid down in the Biblical 
account, and looking back over it he thought he saw that 

1 In his " On Times," Isidore is apparently condensing what he has 
written elsewhere. The first part of it, which gives an account of the 
divisions of time — the moment, hour, day, week, month, year, and so 
forth — is drawn from Be Natura Renim, which in turn was based on 
Suetonius, Solinus, Hyginus, of the heathen writers, and Ambrosius, 
Clement, and Augustine, of the Christian. (See p. 46.) In the second 
part, which consists of a brief chronology, Isidore condensed his 
Chronicon, which was drawn from Eusebius as translated and modi- 
fied by Jerome, and supplemented by the later work of Prosper, Victor 
Tunnensis, and Joannis Biclarensis. The sources of the Chronicon 
have been thoroughly discussed by H. Hertzberg, Ueber die Chronicon 
des Isidors von Sevilla in Forschnngen zur Deutschen Geschichte 
(Gottingen, 1875), vol. xv. 



174 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^4 

it was passing by well-marked stages to an end that was to 
be as sharply defined as its beginning had been. It was 
inevitable that there should be an attempt to plot its pro- 
gress and even to form some general notion as to its end. 
For this purpose the Greek chronology was accepted in its 
entirety and extended by a set of extravagant assumptions, 
acceptable to the uncritical minds of the time, back to the 
beginning of the world. By this means an authoritative 
chronological exposition of past time was secured, such as 
under wise interpretation would disclose more clearly the 
rate and manner in which God's purpose was working itself 
out. 1 

The chronology presented by Isidore traces the course 
of time along the line of the Roman emperors from Her- 
aclius back to Julius Caesar, and then by way of the Ptol- 
emaic dynasty to Alexander the Great. Here a transition 
is made to the Persian kings, who are followed back to 
Darius near the beginning of the fifth age. The four ages 
between the captivity of the Jews and the creation are 
marked by Biblical personages only. 

There are two matters of importance to be noted in con- 
nection with the De Temporibus. 2 Isidore is the first to 
introduce into formal chronology the division of the 
world's history into six ages. The idea was not his, how- 

1 At the same time chronology was incidentally made to show in a 
statistical way what a great priority Hebrew civilization had over its 
pagan rivals. Cf. pp. 79, 80. 

2 In some respects Isidore's chronology is peculiar, and differs from 
any known chronology of world-history of the time. For example, 
where Hieronymus gives the time from the flood to Abraham as 1072 
years, Isidore gives it as 942 years ; and where Af ricanus put the birth 
of Christ in the year 5500 of the world, Isidore put it in 5197- See 
Hertzberg, p. 376. Again, only the full years are noticed, the frac- 
tions of the older chronologies being either counted as integers or 
ignored, though this is not done according to any system. For table 
showing irregularities here, see ibid., p. 325, notes 3 and 4. 



1^5] 0iY TIMES 175 

ever ; he was merely putting into practice a suggestion given 
repeatedly in Augustine's writings/ and used by Orosius 
in his History Against the Pagans. In the second place, 
it should be remarked that Isidore shows no signs of being 
aware of the proposal of Dionysius Exiguus for an era 
beginning with the birth of Christ. It is true that Isidore's 
sixth age is supposed to begin at that time, — although as 
a matter of fact it begins at the death of Julius Caesar, 2 — 
but his era is a world era beginning at the creation. 

EXTRACTS 

Book V, Chapter 28. On the word chronica. 

1. Chronica is the Greek word which in Latin is rendered 
series temporum (succession of times), such as Eusebius, 
bishop of Caesarea, wrote in Greek and the priest Hierony- 
mus translated into Latin; for xp 6v °s in Greek is translated by 
tempus in the Latin. 

Chapter 29. On moments and hours. 

1. Time is divided into moments, hours, days, months, 
years, lusters, generations (saecula), ages. A moment is the 
least and briefest time, so-called from the motion (niotu) of 
the stars. 

2. . . . Hora is a Greek name and still has a Latin sound. 
For hora is a limit (finis) of time, just as horae are the limits 
of the sea and of streams and the borders of garments. 3 

Chapter 30. On days. 

5. The days are named from the gods (dii) whose names 
the Romans bestowed on certain heavenly bodies. They 
named the first day from Sol, which is the chief of the 
heavenly bodies just as this same day is the chief of all the 
days. 

1 E. g. De Civitate Dei, xxii, 30. 

2 5, 38, 5. 

3 Hora (hour) and ora (coast or border) are confused. 



176 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [jyfr 

6. The second they named from Luna, which is next to Sol 
in splendor and size and borrows its light from it. The third 
they named from the star of Mars, which is called Pyrois; 
the fourth, from the star of Mercurius, which certain ones 
name Stilbon. 

7. The fifth, from the star of Jupiter, which they call 
Phaeton; the sixth, from the star of Venus, which they call 
Lucifer, which has more light than all the other stars. 

The seventh day, from the star of Saturnus, which being 
placed in the seventh heaven is said to complete its course in 
thirty years. And the heathen gave names to the days from 
the seven stars because they thought that some influence was 
active upon themselves through the same [stars], saying that 
they had life (spiritus) from Sol, body from Luna, ability and 
eloquence from Mercurius, pleasure from Venus, blood from 
Mars, self-control (temperantia) from Jupiter, and the 
humors from Saturn. Such indeed was the folly of the 
heathen who created such ridiculous imaginations. But among 
the Hebrews the first day is called una Sabbati, which among 
us is dies Dominions, which the heathen have dedicated to Sol. 
The second day of the week is secunda Sabbati, which the 
heathen call dies Lunae ; the third day of the week, tertia Sab- 
bati, which they call dies Mortis; the fourth day of the week, 
quarto Sabbati, which is called Mercurii dies by the pagans; 
the fifth day of the week, quinta Sabbati, that is, fifth day 
from dies Dominions, which among the heathen is called dies 
Jovis; the sixth day of the week, sexta Sabbati, which is called 
by them di?s Veneris. The seventh from dies Dominions is 
Sabbatum, which the gentiles have devoted to Saturnus and 
have named dies Saturni, Sabbatum is translated from the 
Hebrew into the Latin as requies, because God rested on that 
day from all his works. 

The ecclesiastical method of speaking the names of the days 
comes better from the lips of Christians; still, if custom 
should perchance influence anyone so that what he disap- 
proves of in his heart comes forth from his mouth, let him 
know that all those from whom these days were named were 



177] 0N TIMES 177 

men, and on account of certain services of a human sort 
(tnor t alia), since they were very powerful and were promi- 
nent in this world, divine honors were bestowed on them by 
their admirers, both in respect to the days and the stars, but 
first the stars were named after men and then the days were 
named after the stars. 

Chapter 31. On night. 

1. Nox is derived from no cere (to injure) because it in- 
jures the eyes. And it has the light of the moon and stars 
in order that it may not be without beauty, and that it may 
comfort all who work by night, and that the light may be 
sufficiently tempered for certain creatures that cannot en- 
dure the light of the sun. 

3. Night is caused either because the sun is worn out with 
his long journey and is weary when he comes to the last 
stretch of heaven and blows out his weakened fires; or be- 
cause he is driven under the lands with the same force with 
which he carried his light over them, and thus the shadow of 
the earth makes night. Whence Virgilius says: 

Ruit Oceano nox 
Involvens umbra magna terramque polumque. 

Chapter 33. On months. 

1. The word mensis is Greek, being derived from the word 
for moon. For in the Greek language the moon is called /^v?; 
whence among the Hebrews the regular (legitimi) months are 
reckoned not from the circle of the sun, but from the course 
of the moon, which is from new moon to new moon. 

2. Because of the swifter course of the moon and the fear 
that an error of reckoning might arise because of its speed, 
the Egyptians began to reckon the day of the month from the 
course of the sun, since the slower course of the sun could 
be comprehended more easily. 

Chapter 34. On the solstices and equinoxes. 

2. There are two solstices: first, the summer solstice, eight 
days before the Kalends of July, from which time the sun 



178 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^g 

begins to return to the lower circles; the second, the winter 
solstice, eight days before the Kalends of January, when the 
sun begins to make for the higher circles, whence the day of 
the winter solstice is the shortest and that of the summer sol- 
stice the longest. 

3. Likewise there are two equinoxes: one in the spring 
and the other in the autumn, which the Greeks call laijfispiai. 
These equinoxes are the eighth day before the Kalends of 
April and the eighth day before the Kalends of October, be- 
cause the year formerly was divided into two parts only, that 
is, into the summer and the winter solstice, and into two 
hemispheres. 

Chapter 35. On the seasons. 

1. There are four seasons of the year: spring, summer, 
autumn, winter. And they are called seasons (tempora) 
from tempering, 1 since they are tempered in turn by moisture, 
dryness, heat, and cold. 

2. It is known that after the creation of the universe the 
seasons were divided into three months each, according to the 
quality of the sun's course. . . . And the ancients make the 
following divisions of these seasons : in the first month spring 
is called novum, in the second, adultum, in the third, praeceps. 2 

7-8. These seasons are assigned also to separate parts of 
the heavens. The spring is given to the Orient, because then 
all things arise (oriuntur) from the earth; summer to the 
South, because its division is more intense in its heat; winter 
to the North, because it is torpid with colds and perpetual 
frost ; autumn to the Occident, because it has serious diseases. 
Whence, too, the leaves of the trees fall. The bordering of 
cold and heat and the contending of opposite airs causes the 
autumn to abound in diseases. 

Chapter 36. On years. 

1. The year is the circle of the sun when it returns to the 

1 A communionis temperamento. 

2 So in the case of summer, autumn, and winter. 



179] 0iV T1MES 179 

same place in relation to the stars, after three hundred and 
sixty-five days. . . . 

3. There are three kinds of years. For the year is the 
lunar, of thirty days, the solstitial, which contains twelve 
months, or the great year, when all the planets return to the 
same place, which happens after many solstitial years. 

Chapter 38. On generations and ages. 

5. Age (aetas) is used properly in two ways: for it is either 
the age of man, as infancy, prime, old age ; or the age of the 
world, whose first age is from Adam to Noe; the second, 
from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; 
the fourth, from David to the migration of Judah to Babylon; 
the fifth, from then to the coming of the Saviour in the flesh ; 
the sixth, which is now in progress and which will continue 
until the world is ended. 

6. Julius Africanus was the first of our [writers] to set 
forth in the style of simple history, in the time of Marcus 
Aurelius Antoninus, the passing of these ages by generations 
and reigns. Then Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the 
priest Hieronymus of holy memory, published a complex his- 
tory of chronological tables, using reigns and dates at the 
same time. 1 

7. Then others, among them especially Victor, bishop of the 
church of Tununa, reviewed the histories of earlier writers 
and filled out the deeds of subsequent ages down to the con- 
sulate of the second emperor Justinus. 

8. We have noted with what brevity we could the total of 
these times from the beginning of the world to the emperor 
Augustus Heraclius and Suinthilanus, king of the Goths, 
adding at the side a column of dates by the evidence of which 
the total of past time may be known. 

1 The reference in "complex history" (complicem historiam) is to 
the parallel sets of chronological tables of the histories of different 
peoples given by Eusebius. 



180 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ T g 

Chapter 39. On the ordering of times (chronology). 1 

1. The first age contains at its beginning the creation of the 
world. On the first day under the name of light God created 
the angels; on the second, under the name of firmament, the 
heavens; on the third, under the name of parting, the waters 
and the land ; on the fourth day, the lights of heaven ; on the 
fifth, living things of the waters; on the sixth, living things 
of the land and man, whom he called Adam. 

[Years] 

2. Adam in his 230th year begat Seth, from whom 
[sprang] the children of God. 230 

Seth in his 205th year begat Enos, who began to call 

upon the name of the Lord. 435 

Enos in his 190th year begat Cainan. 625 

Cainan in his 170th year begat Malaleel. 795 

Second Age 

5. Sem in the second year after the flood begat Ar- 
phaxad, from whom sprang the Chaldeans. 2244 

Arphaxad in his 135th year begat Sala, from whom 
sprang the Samaritans and Indians. 2 379 

Sala in his 130th year begat Heber, from whom 
sprang the Hebrews. 2 5°9 

6. Heber in his 144th year begat Phaleg. The tower 

was built. 2643 

1 Sufficient of Isidore's chronology is translated to give an idea of its 
method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates for the six ages 
of the world are as follows : 

First age o — 2242. 

Second age 2242 — 3184. 

Third age 3184 — 4125. 

Fourth age 4125 — 4610. 

Fifth age 4610— 5155. 

Sixth age 5155 — ? 

The world according to Isidore's chronology was in its 5825th year. 
Although Isidore professes to start the sixth age with the birth of 
Christ, he really starts it with the beginning of the reign of Augustus. 
See Chronicon; Migne, P. L., vol. 83, col. 1038. 



l8l] ON TIMES !§! 

Phaleg in his 130th year begat Ragan. The gods 
are first worshiped. 2 773 

Ragan in his 132nd year begat Seruch. The king- 
dom of the Scythians begins. 2905 

7. Seruch in his 130th year begat Nachor. The 
king of the Egyptians appears. 3035 

Nachor in his 79th year begat Tharam. The king- 
dom of the Scythians and the Sycionii appears. 31 14 

Tharam in his 70th year begat Abraham. Zoroaster 
discovered magic. 3184 

Third Age 

12. Abdon ruled eight years. Troy was captured. 4025 
Samson ruled twenty years. Ascanius founded Alba. 4045 
The priest Eli ruled forty years. The ark of the 

covenant was captured. 4085 

Samuel ruled forty years. Homer is believed to 
have lived at this time. 4125 

Fourth Age 

13. David ruled forty years. Carthage is founded 

by Dido. Gad, Nathan and Asaph prophesied. 4165 

Solomon ruled forty years. The temple at Jerusa- 
lem was built. . 4205 

Fifth Age 

19. The captivity of the Hebrews, seventy years. 
Judith writes history. 4680 

Darius, thirty-four years. The captivity of the Jews 
is ended. 4714 

Xerxes, twenty years. The tragedians Sophocles 
and Euripides are famous. 4734 

20. Artaxerxes, forty years. Esdras renews the law 
which was burned. 4774 

Darius, called also Nothus, nineteen years. This 
time possessed Plato and Gorgias, the first teacher of 
rhetoric. 4793 



182 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x 8 2 

25. Ptolemaeus, eight years. The art of rhetoric 
begins at Rome. 51 18 
Dionysius, thirty years. Pompey takes Judaea. 5148 

Cleopatra, two years. Egypt is conquered by the 
Romans. 5150 

Julius Caesar, five years. He was the first to pos- 
sess sole authority. 5155 

Sixth Age 

26. Octavian, fifty-six years. Christ is born. 521 1 
Tiberius, twenty-three years. Christ is crucified. 5234 
Caius Caligula, four years. Matthew wrote his 

gospel. 5238 

2J. Claudius, fourteen years. Mark published his 

gospel. 5252 

Nero, fourteen years. Peter and Paul are put to 

death. 5266 

Vespasian, ten years. Jerusalem was destroyed by 

Titus. 5276 

41. Tiberius, six years. The Lombards take Italy. 5779 
Mauritius, twenty-one years. The Goths become 

Catholic. 5800 

Phocas, eight years. The Romans are defeated by 
the Persians. 5808 

42. Eraclius is now governing the empire in his seventeenth 
year. 

The Jews in Spain are being made Christian. The re- 
mainder of the sixth age is known to God alone. 



BOOKS VI-VIII 
THEOLOGY 1 

INTRODUCTION 

After the five books devoted to the seven liberal arts 
there follow three which are grouped together by unity of 
subject and are sharply differentiated from the remainder 
of the Etymologies, which is prevailingly secular in tone. 
The contents of these three form a summary of the non- 
secular thought of the time. 2 Their presence in the midst 
of an encyclopedia of secular learning is to be explained, 
as we have seen, by the probability that their purpose was 
educational, and that they are to be regarded as the texts 
of the final stage in the priestly training. They thus form 
the conclusion of Isidore's educational encyclopedia. 3 

1 These three books are not grouped by Isidore under one name. 
There apparently was no name in existence by which to designate 
them, as theologia was not applied, commonly at least, to Christian 
doctrine before Abelard's time. 

2 The sources of bks. vi-viii differ from those of the remaining books 
of the Etymologies in being almost exclusively Christian. Isidore him- 
self, in his non-secular writings, covers more fully the subjects which 
he here treats in a summary fashion. Compare bk. vi, chaps, i and 2, 
with Proemia in Libros Veteris ac Novi Testament! ; bk. vii, chaps. 6 
and 7, with Expositiones Mysticorum Sacramentorum and De Ortu et 
Obitu Patrum; bk. viii, chaps. 1-5, with Sententiarum Libri Tres; bk. 
vi, chap. 19, and bk. vii, chaps. 12, 13, with De Ecclesiasticis OfUciis. 

3 See pp. 43, 86. 

183] 183 



184 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [^4 

ANALYSIS 

I. The books and services of the Church (Book VI). 

1. The Old and New Testaments (ch. 1). 

2. The writers and names of the holy books (ch. 2). 

3. Books (chs. 3-14). 

a. Libraries. 

b. Translators. 

c. Writers of many books. 

d. Kinds of books. 

e. Writing materials. 

4. The canons of the Gospels (ch. 15). 

5. The canons of the Councils (ch. 16). 

6. The Easter cycle and other feasts (ch. 17). 

7. The services of the Church (ch. 18). 

II. God, the angels and the orders of the faithful (Book 
VII). 

1. God (ch. 1). 

2. The Son of God (ch. 2). 

3. The Holy Spirit (ch. 3). 

4. The Trinity (ch. 4). 

5. The angels (ch. 5). 

6. The meaning of biblical names (chs. 6-10). 

7. Martyrs (ch. 11). 

8. The clergy (ch. 12). 

9. Monks (ch. 13). 

10. The remainder of the faithful (ch. 14). 
III. The Church and the different sects (Book VIII). 

1. The Church and the synagogue (ch. 1). 

2. Religion and faith (ch. 2). 

3. Heresy (chs. 3-5). 

a. The heresies of the Jews. 

b. The heresies of the Christians. 

4. Heathen philosophers (ch. 6). 

5. Poets (ch. 7). 



185] THEOLOGY ^ 

6. Sibyls (ch. 8). 

7. Magi (ch. 9). 

8. Pagans (ch. 10). 

9. Heathen gods (ch. 11). 



BOOK VI 
On the Books and Services of the Church 

extracts 

Chapter 1. On the Old and New Testaments. 

1. The Old Testament is so-called because when the New 
came it was at an end, of which the Apostle speaks : Vetera 
transierunt, et ecce facta sunt omnia nova. 

2. The New Testament is so-called because it brings in the 
new. For men do not learn it, except those renewed from 
their former state through grace and now belonging to the 
New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven. 

3. The Hebrews accept on Esdras' authority twenty-two 
books of the Old Testament, according to the number of their 
letters, 1 dividing them into three series, namely, the Law, the 
Prophets, and the Hagiographi. 

4. The first series of the Law is accepted in five books, of 
which the first is Beresith, which is Genesis ; the second, Veele 
Samoth, which is Exodus; the third, Vaicra, which is Leviti- 
cus; the fourth, Vajedabber, which is Numbers; the fifth, 
Elleaddebarim, which is Deuteronomy. 

6. The second series is that of the Prophets, in which eight 
books are contained, of which the first is Josue Ben-Nun, 
which in Latin is called Jesu Nave ; the second, Sophtin, which 
is Judges ; the third, Samuel, which is the first of Kings ; the 
fourth, Malachim, which is the second of Kings; the fifth, 
Isaias ; the sixth, Jeremias ; the seventh, Ezechiel ; the eighth, 

1 Of the alphabet. 



1 86 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x 86 

Thereazer, which is called ' Of the Twelve Prophets,' which 
books are taken as one since they are placed together on ac- 
count of their brevity. 

7. The third is the series of the Hagiographi, that is, those 
who write what is holy, in which are nine books, of which 
the first is Job ; the second, the Psalms ; the third, Misse, 
which is the Proverbs of Solomon; the fourth, Cohaleth, 
which is Ecclesiastes ; the fifth, Sir Hassirim, which is the 
Song of Songs; the sixth, Daniel; the seventh, Dibrehajamin, 
which is Verba dierum, i. e., Paralipomenon (Chronicles) ; 
the eighth, Esdras; the ninth, Esther. And all of these 
together, five, eight, and nine, make twenty- two just as they 
were inclusively given above. 

8. Certain add Ruth and Cinoth, which in the Latin is 
Lamentatio Jeremiae, to the hagiographa and make twenty- 
four volumes of the Old Testament, like the twenty-four 
elders who stand in the sight of the Lord. 

9. There is with us a fourth series consisting of those books 
of the Old Testament which are not in the Hebrew canon. 
Of which the first is the book of Wisdom (Sapientiae) ; the 
second, Ecclesiasticus ; the third, Thobias; the fourth, Judith; 
the fifth and sixth, of the Machabees. Although the Jews 
set these aside as apocryphal, still the church of Christ honors 
and preaches them among the divine books. 

10. In the New Testament are two series : first the Evan- 
gelic, in which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; second, 
the apostolic, in which are Paul in fourteen epistles, Peter in 
two, John in three, James and Jude in one each, the Acts of 
the Apostles and the Apocalypse of John. 

11. Moreover the whole of each Testament is triply divided, 
that is, into history, morals, and allegory. Again those three 
have many divisions, for example, what was done and said by 
God, what by the angels, or by men, what was foretold by the 
prophets of Christ and his body; what of the devil and his 
members; what of the old and the new people; what of the 
present age, and the coming kingdom, and the judgment. 



187] THEOLOGY x 8 7 

Chapter 2. On the writers and names of the sacred books. 

I. These are said to be the authors of the Old Testament 
according to the Hebrew tradition. First Moses wrote a 
cosmography of divine history in five volumes, which is 
named Pentateuch. 

8. The book of Josue received its name from Jesus, son of 
Nave, whose history it contains, and the Hebrews assert that 
the same Josue was its writer, in the text of which, after the 
crossing of the Jordan, the kingdoms of the enemy are over- 
thrown and the land divided among the people, and by the 
separate cities, villages, mountains and boundaries the spirit- 
ual realms of the church and the heavenly Jerusalem are pre- 
figured. 

18. Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, wrote three vol- 
umes according to the number of his names, of which the first 
is in Hebrew Misle, which the Greeks name Parabolae, the 
Latins, Proverbia, because in it he sets forth figurative ex- 
pressions and likenesses of the truth under the form of a 
parallel. 

19. The truth itself he has reserved to its readers to under- 
stand. The second book is called Coheleth, which in the Greek 
is Ecclesiastes, in Latin, Concionator, because its discourse is 
not especially addressed to one, as in Proverbs, but gener- 
ally to all, teaching that all things which we see in the universe 
are perishable and short-lived, and for this reason little to be 
desired. 

20. The third book he called Sir hassirim, which is trans- 
lated Cantica Canticorum in the Latin, where in a marriage 
song he sings in mystic fashion the union of Christ and the 
church. . . . 

21. The songs in these three books are said to be written in 
hexameter and pentameter verse as Josephus and Hieronymus 
say. 

40. These are the four Evangelists whom the holy spirit 
indicated in Ezechiel in the four animals. And there are four 
animals, because the faith of the Christian religion is spread 
by their preaching through the four quarters of the world. 



"^ 



1 88 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ x 88 

41. And they were called animals (animalia) because the 
Gospel of Christ is preached by them on account of the soul 
(anima) of man. And they were full of eyes within and 
without, since they perceive that what was said by the prophets 
and what had been promised was being fulfilled. 

42. And their legs were straight because there is nothing 
crooked in the Gospels. And as for the six wings apiece that 
cover their legs and faces, those things which were hid are 
revealed at the coming of Christ. 

50. These are the writers of the sacred books who, speak- 
ing by the holy spirit for our edification, wrote both the pre- 
cepts of living and the rule for believing. 

51. In addition to these there are other volumes called apoc- 
rypha, and they are called apocrypha, that is, set aside, be- 
cause they are doubted. For their origin is hidden and was not 
clear to the Fathers from whom the authority of the genuine 
scriptures has come down to us by a most certain and well- 
known tradition. In these apocrypha, although some truth 
is found, there is no canonic authority, on account of the many 
things that are false, and it is rightly judged by the wise that 
they ought not to be believed [to be the work] of those to 
whom they are ascribed. 

52. For many [works] were brought forward by the her- 
etics under the name of the prophets, and many of later 
origin under the name of the apostles, and all of those after 
careful examination were separated from the authority of 
the canon, under the name of apocrypha. 

Chapter 4. On translators. 

1. This man [Ptolemy Philadelphus] asked Eleazer the 
high-priest for the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and had 
them translated from Hebrew into Greek by seventy trans- 
lators, and kept them in the library of Alexandria. 

2. Being placed separately in separate cells they so trans- 
lated all, by the influence of the holy spirit, that nothing was 
found in the text of any one of them, that was different in 
the rest, even in the order of the words. 

5. The priest, Hieronymonus, being expert in the three Ian- 



l8 9 ] THEOLOGY l89 

guages, translated the Scriptures also from Hebrew into Latin 
and expressed them with eloquence, and his translation is 
rightly preferred to the rest. For it is nearer to the literal, 
and plainer because of the clearness of its expression, and 
truer, as being done by a Christian translator. 

Chapter 7. Those who wrote much. 

1. Marcus Terentius Varro among the Latins wrote in- 
numerable books. Among the Greeks also Chalcenterus is ex- 
tolled with marvelous praises because he wrote so many books 
that no one of us could even copy in his own hand-writing as 
many works of other men. 

2. Of our own writers, too, among the Greeks, Origen in 
his toil upon the Scriptures surpassed both Greeks and Latins 
in the number of his works. Hieronymus asserts that he had 
read 6,000 of his books. 

3. However Augustine surpassed the zeal of all these by 
his genius and wisdom. For he wrote so much that no one is 
able in the days and nights even to read his books, far less to 
write them. 

Chapter 16. On the canons of the councils. 

5. Among the rest of the councils we know there are four 
venerable synods which embrace the whole faith in its chief 
heads, like the four Gospels or the four rivers of Paradise. 

6. Of these the first, the Nicene synod of 318 bishops, was 
held when Constantine was emperor. In it the blasphemy of 
the Arian perfidy was condemned, which the same Arius 
gave utterance to concerning the inequality of the holy Trin- 
ity. The same holy synod in the creed defined God the son as 
consubstantial with God, the father. 

7. The second synod of 150 fathers gathered at Constan- 
tinople under Theodosius the elder, and condemning Mace- 
donius, who denied that the Holy Spirit was God. proved that 
the Holy Spirit was consubstantial with the Father and the 
Son, giving the form of the creed which the whole confession, 
Greek and Latin, preaches in the churches. 

8. The third synod, the first of Ephesus, of 200 bishops. 



190 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ r g Q 

was held under Theodosius II, and it condemned with a just 
anathema Nestorius, who asserted that there were two per- 
sons in Christ, and showed that the one person of the Lord 
Jesus Christ was immanent in the two natures. 

9. The fourth synod of 630 priests was held at Chalcedon 
under Martianus, and it condemned by the unanimous vote of 
the fathers Euthyches, abbot of Constantinople, who as- 
serted that the nature of the Word of God and of flesh was 
one, and his defender, Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, and 
Nestorius himself a second time, along with the remaining 
heretics, the same synod stating that Christ the Lord was so 
born of the virgin that we confess in him the substance both 
of the divine and of the human nature. 

These four are the principal synods, stating most fully the 
doctrine of faith; and whatever councils there are which the 
holy Fathers, full of the spirit of God, have ratified, after 
the authority of these four, they continue established in all 
strength. 

Chapter 17. The cycle of Easter. 

10. After the completion of this [95-year cycle] 1 a return 

1 This passage is preceded by a table indicating the date of Easter for 
95 years (627-721). It is clear that although Isidore was not acquainted 
with the plan of Dionysius Exiguus to institute the Christian era, he 
was acquainted with the essentials of his Easter table. Dionysius had 
given the dates for Easter in five 19-year cycles, dating from 525; in 
Isidore this is continued for the years 627 to 721. Isidore's table con- 
sists merely of parallel columns of the days of the month and corres- 
ponding days of the moon on which Easter fell. Each date is marked 
C or E, abbreviations for communis annus and embolismus which de- 
scribe respectively the year of twelve and that of thirteen lunar months 
in use in the Hebrew chronology. A further abbreviation, B, stands 
opposite each fourth year, to mark the leap-years. The years are not 
numbered according to any era, and the assignment of dates, 627-721, 
is inferred from the dates given for Easter. See Ideler, Chronologie, 
vol. ii, p. 290 (Berlin, 1826). Isidore does not make it plain that he 
understood the mathematics of the computation of Easter. It is of 
interest that in 643 the fourth synod of Toledo passed an enactment 
to secure a common observance of Easter throughout the Spanish 
churches, no doubt according to this Easter-table. See Gams, Die 
Kirchengeschichte von Spanien (Regensburg, 1874), vol. ii, part 2, 
p. 94. 



IQI ] THEOLOGY igi 

must be made to the beginning. In ancient times the church 
used to celebrate Easter on the 14th of the moon at the same 
time as the Jews, whatever day it came on; this way of cele- 
brating the holy Fathers forbade at the council of Nicaea, 
giving directions to make inquiry not only for the Easter 
moon and month, but also to observe the day of the resurrec- 
tion of the Lord, and because of this they extended Easter 
from the 14th of the moon to the 21st, in order that the dies 
Dominions might not be left out. 

12. The eve of Easter is spent in watching because of the 
coming of our King and God, that the time of the resurrec- 
tion may find us not sleeping but waking. And the reason for 
this night is a double one, either because he received life at 
that time when he suffered, or because he is to come for judg- 
ment at the same hour at which he arose. 

13. And we celebrate Easter in such a way as not merely to 
call to memory the death and resurrection of Christ but also 
to consider the rest that is told about him with reference to 
its mystic meaning (ad sacramentorum significationem) . 

14. For on account of beginning the new life, and on ac- 
count of the new man which we are bidden to put on and to 
put off the old, purging away the old ferment in order that we 
may be a new sprinkling (conspersio), since Christ is sacri- 
ficed as our Pascha (Passover) ; on account of this newness 
of life, then, the first month in the months of the year is mys- 
tically assigned to the Easter festival. 

15. And that Easter is celebrated on a day in the third 
week, that is, a day that occurs between the fourteenth and 
twenty-first, this signifies that in the whole time of the world, 
which is based on the unit of seven days, this mystery has now 
opened a third time. 

16. For the first time is before the law, the second under 
the law, the third under grace. Wherein the mystery before 
hidden in the prophetic allegory is now plain, and the resur- 
rection of the Lord is on the third day on account of these 
three periods of the world. 

17. As to the fact that Easter day is sought through seven 



1 92 I SID ORE OF SE VILLE [ 1 g 2 

days from the fourteenth to the twenty-first, this is done on 
account of the number seven, by which the meaning of com- 
pleteness is often figured, which is also assigned to the church 
itself because it is universal. For this reason also John, the 
apostle, writes to the seven churches. 

18. And by the name of the moon in the Scriptures, on ac- 
count of its mutability it is signified that the church as yet 
is established [only] in the mortality of the flesh. 

19. An observance of different opinions as to the feast of 
Easter sometimes produces error. For the Latins seek for 
the moon of the first month from the third day before the 
Nones of March to the third before the Nones of April, and 
if the fourteenth day of the moon comes on Sunday, they 
postpone Easter to another Sunday. 

20. The Greeks observe the moon of the first month from 
the eighth before the Ides of March to the day of the Nones 
of April, and if the fifteenth day of the moon comes on the 
Lord's day, they celebrate Easter. A difference of this sort 
between them disturbs the regularity of the Easter canon. 



BOOK VII 
On God, the Angels, and the Orders of the Faithful 

extracts 

Chapter 1. On God. 

1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest 
learning and skilled in many languages, first rendered into 
the Latin language the meaning of the Hebrew names. And 
leaving out many for brevity, I propose to insert certain of 
them in this work with their meanings in addition. 

2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what 
they mean. For certain have the reason for their names in 
peculiar causes. And at the beginning we set down ten names 
by which God is called among the Hebrews. . . . 



193] THEOLOGY I93 

Chapter 5. On angels. 

2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a 
nature ; for they are always spirits, but are called angels when 
they are sent. 

3. And the license of painters makes wings for them in 
order to denote their swift passage in every direction, just as 
also in the fables of the poets the winds are said to have wings 
on account of their velocity. . . . 

4. The sacred writings testify that there are nine orders of 
angels, namely, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, vir- 
tues, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. And we 
shall explain by derivation why the names of these functions 
were so applied. 

5. Angels are so called because they are sent down from 
heaven to carry messages to men. . . . 

6. Archangels in the Greek tongue means summi nuntii in 
the Latin. For they who carry small or trifling messages are 
called angels ; and they who announce the most important 
things are called archangels. . . . Archangels are so called 
because they hold the leadership among angels. . . . For they 
are leaders and chiefs under whose control services are as- 
signed to each and every angel. 

17. Certain functions of angels by which signs and wonders 
are done in the world are called virtues, on account of which 
the virtues are named. 

18. Those are powers to whom hostile virtues are subject, 
and they are called by the name of powers because evil spirits 
are constrained by their power not to harm the world as much 
as they desire. 

19. Principalities are those who are in command of the 
hosts of the angels. And they have received the name of 
principality because they send the subordinate angels here and 
there to do the divine service. . . . 

20. Dominions are they who are in charge even of the vir- 
tues and principalities, and they are called dominions because 
they rule the rest of the hosts of the angels. 

21. Thrones are the hosts of angels who in the Latin are 



194 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ I94 

called sedes; and they are called thrones because the creator 
presides over them, and through them accomplishes his de- 
cisions. 

22. Cherubim . . . are the higher hosts of angels who, 
being placed nearer, are fuller of the divine wisdom than the 
rest. . . . 

24. The seraphim in like manner are a multitude of angels, 
and the word is translated from the Hebrew into the Latin 
as ardentes or incendentes, and they are called ardentes be- 
cause between them and God no other angels stand, and there- 
fore the nearer they stand in his presence the more they are 
lighted by the brightness of divine light. 

25. And they veil the face and feet of God sitting on his 
throne, and therefore the rest of the throng of angels are not 
able to see fully the essence of God, since the seraphim cover 
him. 

28. To each and every one, as has been said before, his 
proper duties are appointed, and it is agreed that they obtained 
these according to merit at the beginning of the world. That 
angels have charge over both places and men, an angel testi- 
fies through the prophet, saying : " Princeps regni Persarum 
mihi restitit " (Dan. x. 13). 

29. Whence it is evident that there is no place that angels 
have not charge of. They have charge also over the begin- 
nings of all works. 

30. Such is the order or classification of the angels who 
after the fall of the wicked stood in celestial strength. For 
after the apostate angels fell, these were established in the 
continuance of eternal blessedness. 

32. As to the two seraphim that are read of in Isaiah, they 
show in a figure the meaning of the Old and the New Testa- 
ment. But as to their covering the face and feet of God, it 
is because we cannot know the past before the universe, nor the 
future after the universe, but according to their testimony we 
contemplate only the intervening time. 



I 9 5] THEOLOGY Igs 

Chapter 6. On men who received prophetic names. 

1. Most of the men of early times have the origin of their 
names in appropriate causes. And their names have been 
given in such a prophetic way that they are in harmony with 
either their future or their antecedent causes. 

2. However we shall now examine merely their literal 
meaning in history, without touching on the inner meaning of 
the spirit. 

Chapter n. On martyrs. 

4. There are two kinds of martyrs, one in open suffering, 
the other in the hidden virtue of the spirit. For many, en- 
during the lyings-in-wait of the enemy and resisting all carnal 
desires, have become martyrs even in time of peace, because 
they have sacrificed themselves in their heart to the omnipo- 
tent God, and if they had lived in time of persecution, they 
could have been martyrs in reality. 

Chapter 12. On the clergy. 

4. The order of bishops is four-fold, namely, patriarchs, 
archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops. 

5. Patriarch in the Greek tongue means highest of the 
fathers, because he holds the first, that is, the Apostolic place, 
and he is honored by such a name because he holds the high- 
est office, as for example, the patriarch of Rome, Antioch or 
Alexandria. 



196 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [796 

BOOK VIII 1 

The Church and the Different Sects 

extracts 

Chapter I. On the church and the synagogue. 

4. The church began at the place where the holy spirit 
came from heaven and filled those who were sitting together. 

5. In view of its present sojourn in strange parts the church 
is called Sion, because from the distant viewpoint of this so- 
journ it contemplates the promise of heavenly things, and 
therefore it has received the name Sion, that is, contemplation. 

6. Moreover in view of the peace of the future land it is 
called Jerusalem, for Jerusalem means vision of peace. For 
there, all suffering ended, it shall possess with near contem- 
plation the peace which is Christ. 

Chapter 3. On heresy. 

1. Haeresis is so-called in the Greek from choosing, be- 
cause, forsooth, each one chooses for himself what seems to 
him to be better, as the Peripatetic philosophers, the Acad- 
emic, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, or as others who, follow- 
ing perverse belief, have departed from the church of their 
own free will. 

2. And so heresy is named in the Greek from its meaning 
of choice, since each at his own will chooses what he pleases 
to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe any- 
thing of our own will, nor to choose what someone has be- 
lieved of his. 

1 It is worth noticing that in bks. vii and viii Isidore gives a list of the 
whole hierarchy of supernatural and human existences beginning with 
God and ending with the devil. An inspection of the order of subjects 
will suggest to the reader that he was arranging them in order of 
merit. If this supposition is correct, the table of contents of these 
two books is a very significant one, as throwing light upon Isidore's 
scale of values for the divine, the human and the demonic. 



197] THEOLOGY lg y 

3. We have God's apostles as authorities, who did not 
themselves of their own will choose anything of what they 
should believe, but they faithfully transmitted to the nations 
the teaching received from Christ. And so, even if an angel 
from heaven shall preach otherwise, he shall be called ana- 
thema. 

Chapter 5. On the heresies of the Christians. 

69. There are also other heresies 1 without founders or 
names: some of whom believe that God has three forms; and 
others say that the divinity of Christ is capable of suffering; 
and others set a date in time to the generation of Christ by 
the Father. Others believe that by the descent of Christ the 
liberation of all 2 in the lower regions was accomplished; 
others deny that the soul is the image of God; others think 
that souls are changed to demons and to animals of every 
sort; others hold different views about the constitution of the 
universe; others think there are innumerable universes; 
others make water co-eternal with God; others go on their 
bare feet ; others do not eat in company with men. 

70. These heresies have arisen against the catholic faith 
and have been condemned beforehand by the apostles and the 
holy fathers, or by the councils, and while they are not con- 
sistent with one another, being divided among many different 
errors, they still conspire with one assent against the church 
of God. But whoever understands the holy Scripture other- 
wise than as the sense of the Holy Spirit, by whom it was 
written, demands, though he do not withdraw from the church, 
he can be still called a heretic. 

Chapter 6. On the heathen philosophers. 

1. Philosophers are so-called by a Greek name, which in 
Latin means amatores sapientiae. For he is a philosopher 
who has a knowledge of divine and human things, and keeps 
wholly to the way of right living. 

1 A list of heresies precedes. 

s Du Breul, hominum instead of omnium. 



igg ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ T gg 

2. The name of the philosophers is said to have first origi- 
nated with Pythagoras. For when the ancient Greeks boast- 
fully named themselves sophists, that is, wise men, or teachers 
of wisdom, he was asked what he professed to be, and he 
modestly replied that he was a philosopher, that is, lover of 
wisdom, since to make a profession of wisdom seemed very 
arrogant. 

3. And so in later times it became the practice to give only 
the name of philosopher, no matter how great the learning in 
matters pertaining to wisdom each seemed to himself or to 
others to possess. And these philosophers are divided into 
three classes: for they are either natural philosophers {phy- 
sici), or moral (ethici), or rational (logici). 

4. The natural philosophers are so-called because they treat 
of nature. . . . 

5. The moral philosophers are so-called because they dis- 
cuss morals. . . . 

6. The rational philosophers are so named because they add 
reason to nature and morals. . . . These are divided into their 
schools, some having names from their founders, as Platonici, 
Epicurei, Pythagorici; others from their places of meeting, 
as Peripatetici, Stoici, Academici. 

7. The Platonici are named from the philosopher Plato. 
They assert that God is the creator of souls, the angels of 
bodies; they say that after many cycles of years souls return 
to different bodies. 

9. [The Stoics] assert that no one is happy without virtue. 
They claim that every sin is equally sinful, saying : " He is 
as guilty who steals chaff as he who steals gold, he who kills 
a waterfowl as he who kills a horse; for it is not the thing 
but the spirit (non animal sed animus) that makes the sin." 

10. These also say that the soul perishes with the body. 
They love the virtue of self-control, and seek eternal glory 
although they assert that they are not immortal. 

n. The Academici are named from Academia, Plato's 
villa at Athens, where he taught. These believe that all things 
are uncertain; but although it must be admitted that many 



199] THEOLOGY igg 

things which God willed to surpass the understanding of 
man, are uncertain and hidden from us, yet there are very- 
many things which can be received by the senses and appre- 
hended by man. 

15. The Epicureans are named from Epicurus, a certain 
philosopher, a lover of vanity not of wisdom, whom the very 
philosophers themselves called a swine because he wallowed in 
carnal filth and asserted that bodily pleasure was the highest 
good, and even said that the universe was not formed and 
ruled by a divine Providence. 

16. But he assigned the origin of things to atoms, that is, 
to indivisible material bodies, from the chance combination 
of which all things arise and have arisen. He said that God 
did nothing, that all things are corporeal, that the soul is not 
different from the body. And so he said, " I shall not exist 
after I die." 

22. These errors of the philosophers have given rise also to 
heresies in the church. . . . 

23. When it is said that the soul perishes, Epicurus is 
honored; and the denial of the resurrection of the flesh is 
taken from all the philosophers; and where matter is put on 
an equality with God, it is the teaching of Zeno; and where 
anything is read about a God of fire, Heraclitus comes in. 
The same material is used and the same errors are embraced 
over and over by heretics and philosophers. 

Chapter 7. On poets. 

1. Tranquillus thus tells why poets were so named: " When 
men putting off savagery first began to have a settled mode of 
life and to obtain a knowledge of themselves and their gods, 
they contrived a modest way of living and necessary words 
for themselves, but sought for magnificence in each for the 
worship of their gods. 

2. And so, just as they made temples more beautiful than 
the homes of that time, and images larger than men's bodies, 
so they thought that [the gods] must be honored with an elo- 
quence even more stately, and they extolled their merits in 
splendid words and pleasure-giving verse." 



200 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 200 

10. The function of a poet is in this, that by the aid of a 
figurative and indirect mode of speech he gracefully changes 
and transforms to a different aspect what has really taken 
place. But Lucan is not placed in the number of poets be- 
cause he seems to have composed a history, not a poem. 

Chapter 8. On the sibyls. 

3. The most learned authors relate that there were ten 
Sibyls. Of whom the first was the Persian; the second, the 
Libyan; the third, the Delphian, born in the temple of the 
Delphian Apollo, who foretold the Trojan wars and very 
many of whose verses Homer inserted in his work ; the fourth, 
the Cimmerian in Italy ; the fifth, the Erythraean, Herophyla 
by name, born in Babylon, who foretold to the Greeks on their 
way to Ilium that they would perish and Homer would write 
lies ; she was called Erythraean because her verses were found 
in that island; the sixth, the Samian. . . . 

5. The seventh, the Sibyl of Cumae, who brought nine 
books to Tarquinius Priscus in which were written the secrets 1 
of Rome. . . . 

6. The eighth, the Sibyl of Hellespont, born in Trojan ter- 
ritory, who is said to have lived in the days of Solon and 
Cyrus. . . . The ninth, who prophesied at Ancyra. The 
tenth, the Sibyl of Tibur, Albunea by name. 

7. Verses of all these are published, in which it is mani- 
festly proved that they wrote many things about God and 
Christ and the heathen. The Erythraean Sibyl, however, is 
said to be the most celebrated and famous of them all. 

Chapter 9. On the magi. 

1. The first of the magi was Zoroaster, king of the Bac- 
trians, whom Ninus, king of the Assyrians, slew in battle, 
and of whom Aristotle writes that on the evidence of his 
works it is clear that he composed 2,000,000 verses. 

2. This art was enlarged by Democritus many centuries 
later when Hippocrates was famous for his knowledge of 
medicine. . . . 

1 Reading secreta for decreta. 



201] THEOLOGY 20I 

3. And so this vanity of the magic arts flourished during 
many generations in the whole world by the teaching of the 
bad angels, through a certain knowledge of the future and 
the summoning up of infernal spirits. Their inventions are 
divinations, auguries, the so-called oracles, and necromancy. 

4. And there is no miracle in the feats of the magicians, 
whose arts of wickedness reached such perfection that they 
actually resisted Moses by wonders very like his, turning 
twigs to serpents and water to blood. 

5. It is said that there was a very famous magician, Circe, 
who turned Ulysses' companions into beasts. We also read 
of a sacrifice which the Arcadians offered to their god 
Lycaeus when all who ate of it were changed to the shapes of 
beasts. 

6. And it is plain that the famous poet wrote of a certain 
woman who excelled in the magic arts : " She promises to 
soothe by her charms the minds of whomsoever she wishes, 
and to cause others cruel anxieties ; to stay the current in the 
stream, to turn the stars back. She summons the spirits of 
the dead at night; you shall hear the earth bellow beneath 
your feet and see the ash trees come down the mountain 
side." 1 

7. Why should I tell further of the sorceress — if it is right 
to believe it — how she summoned the soul of the prophet 
Samuel from the secret places of hell and presented him to 
the gaze of the living — if we are to believe that it was the soul 
of the prophet and not some fantastic deceit created by the 
trickery of Satan. 

8. Prudentius, too, tells of Mercury : " It is said that he 
recalled the souls of the dead to the light by the power of 
the wand he held, and others he condemned to death." And 
a little later he adds : " The wicked art can summon unsub- 
stantial forms with its magic murmur and utter incantations 
over sepulchral ashes, and others it can deprive of life." 

1 Verg. Aen. 4, 487-491, not quoted directly but taken from Augustine, 
De Civitate Dei, 21, 6. 



202 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 20 2 

9. The magi are they who are usually called malefici be- 
cause of the greatness of their guilt. They throw the ele- 
ments into commotion, disorder men's minds, and without any 
draught of poison they kill by the mere virulence of a charm. 

10. . . . They summon demons, and dare to work such 
juggleries that each one slays his enemies by evil arts. They 
use blood also, and victims, and often touch dead bodies. 

11. Necromancers are they by whose incantations the dead 
appear to revive and prophesy and answer questions. ... To 
summon them blood is thrown on a corpse; for they say 
demons love blood, and therefore as often as necromancy is 
practiced blood is mixed with water, that they may be more 
easily attracted owing to the color of blood. 

12. The hydromantii are so named from water. For it is 
hydromancy to summon the shades of demons by looking into 
water and to see their likenesses or mockeries, and to be told 
some things by them, while the pretence is made that it is 
actually the dead who are being questioned by the aid of 
blood. 1 

13. This sort of divination is said to have been introduced 
by the Persians. Varro says there are four kinds of divination, 
namely, by earth, air, water, fire; hence geomancy, hydro- 
mancy, aeromancy, pyromancy. 

14. Divini (sooth-sayers) are so called as if they were Deo 
pleni (full of God) ; for they pretend that they are full of 
divinity and they guess men's future by a deceitful cleverness. 

There are two sorts of [this] divination, skill and frenzy. 

16. Arioli (sooth-sayers) are so named because they utter 
their execrable prayers at the altars (aras) of idols and make 
funeral offerings, and because of their solemn observances 
they receive responses from demons. 

23. The genethliaci are so named because of their ob- 
servance of natal days. They lay out men's nativities accord- 
ing to the twelve constellations of heaven, and by the course 
of the stars endeavor to foretell the characters, deeds, and 

1 From Augustine, De Civitate Dei, bk. vii. cap. 35. 



203] THEOLOGY 20 , 

fortunes of the new-born, that is, under what sign each has 
been born, and what result it has for the life of him who is 
born. 

25. At first the interpreters of the stars were called magi, 
as is read of those who announced the birth of Christ in the 
Gospel; later they had only the name of mathematici. 

26. A knowledge of this art was granted up to the time of 
the Gospel, that when Christ was born no one after that should 
read the nativity of anyone from heaven. 

30. To these belong also the ligatures, with their accursed 
remedies, which medical science condemns, whether in charms 
or in signs or in suspending and binding articles. 

31. In all these the demonic art has arisen from a pesti- 
lential association of men and bad angels. Whence all must 
be avoided by Christians and rejected and condemned with 
thorough-going malediction. 

Chapter 10. On the heathen. 

2. The Gentiles are they who are without the law and have 
not yet believed. Moreover they are called Gentiles because 
they are in their con-genital state, that is, just as in the flesh 
they have plunged down into sin, to wit, serving idols and 
not yet regenerate. 

Chapter 11. On the gods of the heathen. 

1. They whom the pagans assert to be gods are known to 
have been men at one time, and in accordance with the life 
and services of each one they began to be worshiped among 
their own people after their death, as, in Egypt, Isis; in 
Crete, Jove; among the Moors, Juba; among the Latins, 
Faunus ; among the Romans, Quirinus. 

2. . . . And in their praises the poets, too, have helped, 
and by writing poems have raised them up to the heavens. 

3. It is said that the invention of certain arts has given rise 
to worship, as medicine for Aesculapius, craftsmanship for 
Vulcan. And they get their names from their activities, as 
Mercurius because he is in charge of merchandise; Liber 
from liberty. 



204 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 204 

4. There were also certain brave men and founders of cities, 
upon whose death men, because they loved them, made images 
of them, so as to have some comfort from the contemplation 
of their likenesses, but this error, it is now plain, so insinuated 
itself among later men by the influence of demons, that the 
persons whom earlier men honored for the sake of memory 
and nothing else, were believed by their successors to be gods, 
and were worshiped. 

5. The use of images arose when, because of longing for the 
dead, likenesses or representations were made of them as if 
they had been received into heaven. And demons substituted 
themselves to be worshiped on earth in their place, and per- 
suaded deceived and wretched men that sacrifices should be 
made to them. 

12. While wicked pride, whether of men or of demons, 
commands and desires this worship, on the other hand pious 
humility, whether of men or of holy angels, refuses it when 
offered to them and shows to whom it is due. 

15. Demons, they say, were named by the Greeks as if 
dafaovag, that is, clever and knowing about things. For they 
foreknow many things that are to come, and because of this 
they are wont to give some responses. 

16. For there is in them a knowledge of things greater 
than is in human weakness, partly by the keenness of their 
subtler sense, partly by the experience of very long life, partly 
by God's command as revealed by the angels. They are 
strong in the nature of their aerial bodies. 

17. Before their transgression, indeed, they had celestial 
bodies. But they fell and changed to an aerial quality, and 
they are not allowed to occupy the purer stretches of yonder 
airy space, but those misty parts, and this serves as a sort of 
prison for them until the time of judgment. These are the 
apostate angels, and their chief is the devil. 

18. The devil (diabolus) in Hebrew means flowing down- 
ward (deorsum linens), because he despised a calm station 
at heaven's height and fell in downward ruin by the weight 
of his pride; but in Greek devil means accuser, whether be- 



205] THEOLOGY 205 

cause he reports the guilty deeds to which he is himself the 
tempter, or because he accuses the innocence of the elect with 
false crimes. Whence the angel's voice says in the Apocalypse : 
" The accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who ac- 
cused them in the sight of God day and night." 

19. Satanas signifies in Latin the adversary, or deserter. 
He is the adversary, for he is the foe of truth, and struggles 
to resist the virtues of the holy; and the deserter, because he 
became an apostate and did not stand by the truth in which 
he was created ; and the tempter, because he demands that the 
uprightness of the just be tried, as is written in Job. 

20. Antichrist is so named because he is going to oppose 
Christ. It is not as certain simple-minded persons understand, 
that he is called Antichrist because he is going to come before 
Christ, that is, that Christ will come after him ; not so, but 
Antichrist in the Greek means in the Latin contrarius 
Christo, for awl in Greek means contra in Latin. 

21. For when he comes he will say falsely that he is Christ, 
and he will fight against him, and will oppose the sacraments 
of Christ, in order to destroy the Gospel of truth. 

22. For he will try to repair the temple at Jerusalem and 
to restore all the ceremonies of the old law; moreover he is 
Antichrist who denies that Christ is God, for he is opposed to 
Christ; all who go out of the church and are cut off from 
the unity of faith are themselves Antichrist. 

37. They say that Janus is the gate (janua), as it were, of 
the universe, or the heavens or the months ; they make Janus 
with two faces because of the East and the West; when they 
make him with four faces and call him the double Janus they 
refer this to the four quarters of the universe or to the four 
elements or seasons. But when they make this pretence they 
make a monster, not a god. 

56. They say that Diana [Apollo's] sister is at the same 
time Luna and the divinity of roads. And they represent her 
as a maiden because nothing grows on a road. And both 
[Apollo and Diana] are falsely represented as having arrows 
because the sun and moon send their rays from heaven down 
to the earth. 



206 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 20 6 

81. Pan is a Greek name; the Latin is Silvanus; the god of 
the country people whom they invented to represent nature, 
whence he is called Pan, that is, all. For they pretend that 
he is made out of every kind of element. 

82. For he has horns to represent the rays of the sun and 
moon; he has a skin, marked by spots, because of the stars 
of heaven; his face is red to represent the ether; he carries 
a Pan's-pipe of seven reeds because of the harmony of the 
heavens in which are seven sounds, and the seven notes of the 
voice. 

89. These x and others are the fabulous imaginations of the 
heathen, and, being rightly understood, they are such that 
their worship, though in ignorance, brings damnation. 

100. They say manes are the gods of the dead, whose 
power, they assert, is between the moon and the earth. . . . 

101. Larvae they say are demons made from men who have 
been wicked. It is said to be their nature to terrify little ones 
and to gibber in dark corners. 

1 The reference is to heathen gods. 



BOOK IX 

ON LANGUAGES, RACES, EMPIRES, WARFARE, 
CITIZENS, RELATIONSHIPS 

INTRODUCTION 

In spite of the apparent lack of unity indicated by the 
title, the subject of Book IX may be fairly described as 
mankind. It is true that language is the first topic, but it 
is brought in merely because Isidore believed that differ- 
ences of race were based on differences of language. It is 
followed by a survey of the races of mankind, ending with 
an account of the races that had won military prominence. 
Isidore then turns to man within the state and treats of him 
first as a soldier and then as a citizen. Finally man is 
taken up as a member of the family, and an account of 
family relationship and of marriage is given. 1 

Isidore gives a table of " the prohibited degrees " within which 
marriage was forbidden by the rule of the church. Since the intro- 
duction of Christianity these had been steadily extended until in Isi- 
dore's lifetime intermarriage within the seventh degree was prohibited 
by Pope Gregory. The analogy between the wide extension of " the 
prohibited degrees " in the dark ages and that found among primitive 
peoples generally is remarkable. Westermarck, History of Human 
Marriage, p. 297, says : "As a rule among primitive peoples unaffected 
by modern civilization, the prohibited degrees are more numerous than 
in advanced communities, the prohibitions in many cases referring even 
to all the members of a tribe or clan." For an account of this de- 
velopment of marriage, see Westermarck, op. cit., p. 308, and Smith 
and Cheetham's Christian Antiquities, art. " Prohibited Degrees." This 
social phenomenon of the dark ages is a development parallel to the 
recrudescence of the primitive in the intellectual sphere which is illus- 
trated in so marked a manner in the Etymologies (cf. pp. 50-54). 
207] 207 



208 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 o8 

ANALYSIS 

I. Languages (ch. i). 
II. Mankind (ch. 2). 

1. Mankind the descendants of the sons of Noah 

(Sees. 2-37). 

2. General view of the peoples of the earth with their 

Hebrew origin where known (Sees. 37-135). 

III. Empires, rulers, and warfare (ch. 3). 

IV. Terms relating to civil life (ch. 4). 
V. The family (chs. 5-7). 

1. The direct line (ch. 5). 

2. Relatives and degrees of relationship, with the 

" prohibited degrees " (ch. 6). 

3. Marriage (ch. 7). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On the languages of the nations. 

1. The diversity of languages arose after the flood, at the 
building of the tower; for before that proud undertaking di- 
vided human society among different languages (in diver sos 
signorum sonos) there was one tongue for all peoples, which 
is called Hebrew. This the patriarchs and prophets used, not 
only in their conversation, but in the sacred writings as well. 
At first there were as many languages as peoples, then more 
peoples than languages, because many peoples sprang from 
one language. 

3. There are three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin, and they are supreme through all the world. For it 
was in these three languages that the charge against the Lord 
was written above the cross by Pilate. Wherefore, because 
of the obscurity of the holy Scriptures, a knowledge of these 
three languages is necessary, in order that there may be re- 
course to a second if the expression in one of them leads to 
doubt of a word or its meaning. 

4. But the Greek tongue is considered most famous among 



209] 0N LA NGUAGES, RACES, EMPIRES 209 

the tongues of the nations. For it is more resonant than the 
Latin and all other tongues, and its variety is discerned in its 
five divisions : of which the first is called «o«>#, that is, debased 
or common, which all use. 

5. The second is Attic, that is, the Athenian speech which 
all the writers of Greece used. The third is Doric, which the 
Egyptians have and the Sicilians. The fourth is Ionic. The 
fifth, Aeolic, which the Aeoles spoke. In observing the Greek 
tongue there are definite distinctions of this sort; for their 
language is divided in this way. 

6. Certain have asserted that there are four Latin lan- 
guages, namely, the early, the Latin, the Roman, the cor- 
rupted. The early is that which the oldest Italians used in 
the time of Janus and Saturn, a rude speech, as is shown in 
the songs of the Salii; the Latin, which they spoke in Latium 
under Latinus and the kings of Tuscia, in which the twelve 
tables were written. 

7. The Roman, which began to be spoken by the Roman 
people after the kings were driven out, which was used by 
the poets Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, Virgilius, the orators 
Gracchus, Cato, Cicero, and the rest. The corrupted Latin, 
which, after the empire was extended more widely, burst into 
the Roman state along with customs and men, corrupting the 
soundness of speech by solecisms and barbarisms. 

10. Every language, Greek, Latin, or of other nations, any 
man can grasp by hearing it, or can get from a teacher by 
reading. Though a knowledge of all languages is difficult for 
anyone, still no one is so sluggish that, situated as he is in his 
own nation, he should not know his own nation's language. 
For what else is he to be thought except lower than the brute 
animals? For they make the sound that is proper to them, 
but he is worse who lacks a knowledge of his own language. 

11. What sort of language God spoke at the beginning of 
the world when he said " Let there be light ", it is difficult to 
discover. For there were no languages yet. Likewise [it is 
hard to learn] in what tongue he spoke later to man's external 
ear, especially when he spoke to the first man or to the 



2IO ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2IO 

prophets, or when God's voice sounded corporally 1 as when 
he said, " Thou art my beloved son ", where it is believed 
by certain authorities that he used that one and single lan- 
guage that existed before there was a diversity of language. 
However among the different nations it is believed that God 
speaks to them in that same tongue which they themselves 
use, so as to be understood by them. 

12. God speaks to men, not through the agency of invisible 
substance, but by an embodied being, in which form he has 
willed to appear to men when he has spoken. The Apostle 
says also : " If I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels ", where the question arises in what tongue angels 
speak. Not that angels have languages, but this is said figur- 
atively. 

13. Likewise it is asked what tongue men will speak in 
future. The answer is nowhere found. . . . 

14. And we have written first about tongues and later about 
nations for the reason that nations have arisen from tongues, 
not tongues from nations. 

Chapter 2. On names of Nations. 

2. The nations among whom the earth is divided are sev- 
enty-three. Fifteen from Japhet, thirty-one from Cham, 
twenty-seven from Sem, which make seventy-three, or rather, 
as calculation shows, seventy-two, and as many languages 
began to exist throughout the lands, and increasing they filled 
the provinces and islands. 

25. . . . These 2 are the nations of the stock of Cham, who 
stock of Sem, possessing the southern land from the sunrise 
all the way to the Phoenicians. 

25. . . . These x are the nations of the stock of Cham, who 
hold all the southern part from Sidon all the way to the 
Strait of Cadiz. 

37. These are the nations of the stock of Japhet, which 

1 Corporaliter. 

2 The names of the nations are enumerated in the preceding sections. 



2 1 1 ] ON LAN GU A GES, RA CES, EMPIRES 2 1 1 

possessed the half of Asia and all Europe as far as the British 
Ocean, leaving names to both places and peoples from Mt. 
Taurus to Aquilo, of which at a later time a great many were 
changed, but the rest remain as they were. 

38. For the names of many peoples have remained in part, 
so that it is evident to-day whence they were derived, as the 
Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but they 
have changed in part, through length of time, so that the 
most learned men scanning the oldest histories have with dif- 
ficulty been able to find the origins, not of all, but of some of 
them. 

39. . . . And if all things should be considered, it is evident 
that a greater number of peoples have changed their names 
than have kept them, and different reasons have imposed dif- 
ferent names on them. For the Indi were so-called from the 
river Indus which bounds them on the west. 

40. The Seres x obtained a name from their own town, a 
people lying toward the East, among whom wool taken from 
trees is woven. 

89. The Goths are believed to have been named from 
Magog, son of Japhet, from the likeness of the last syllable. 
These the ancients called Getae, rather than Goths, a race 
brave and very powerful, of lofty massive stature, fear-in- 
spiring in the matter of arms. . . . 

96. The Vindilicus is a river bursting forth in the extremity 
of Gaul, near which stream the Vandals are said to have 
dwelt, and to have derived their name from it. 

97. The nations of Germany are so-called because their 
bodies are of monstrous size, and their tribes are terrible, 
being inured to the fiercest cold, and they have derived their 
characteristics from the rigor of the climate, of fierce spirit 
and always unconquerable, living on plunder and hunting. Of 
these there are very many tribes, varying in their armor and 
in the color of their dress and with different languages, and 

1 The name China appeared for the first time in the Christian Topo- 
graphy of Cosmas Indicopleustes. It does not appear in the Etymol- 
ogies. 



212 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2I2 

the derivation of their names is doubtful. . . . The frightful- 
ness of their barbarism contributes a certain fearfulness of 
sound to their very names. 

ioo. The tribe of Saxons, dwelling on the shores of the 
Ocean and among pathless marshes, brave and active. And 
from this they get their name, because they are a hardy and 
very strong race of men, and one that surpasses other tribes 
in piracy. 

10 1. It is believed that the Francs were so-called from a 
certain leader. Others think that their name comes from the 
savagery of their character. For their customs are uncouth, 
and they have a natural fierceness of spirit. 

102. Certain suspect that the Britons were so-called accord- 
ing to the Latin because they are stupid (bruti), a. people 
situated in the midst of the Ocean, separated by the sea, as 
it were, beyond the circle of lands. 

105. In accordance with diversity of climate, the appear- 
ance of men and their color and bodily size vary and diversi- 
ties of mind appear. Thence we see that the Romans are dig- 
nified, the Greeks unstable, the Africans crafty, the Gauls 
fierce by nature and somewhat headlong in their disposition, 
which the character of the climates brings about. 

132. The Anthropophagi, a very fierce people, situated in 
the direction of the Seres. And they are named Anthro- 
pophagi because they eat human flesh. And just as in the 
case of these, so in the case of other peoples throughout the 
ages, names have been changed either because of kings, or 
countries, or customs, or some other causes, so that the first 
origin of their name is not evident, owing to distance of time. 

133. Moreover those who are called Antipodes, because 
they are believed to be opposite to our feet, so that, being as 
it were placed beneath the earth, they tread in footsteps that 
are opposed to our feet. It is by no means to be believed, 
because neither the solid texture nor the center of the earth 
admits it. Besides, this is not established by any historical 
evidence, but the poets arrive at this conclusion by a sort of 
reasoning. 



213] ON LAN GU A GES, RA CES, EMPIRES 2 1 3 

Chapter 3. On kingdoms and terms used in warfare. 

2. Whole nations have enjoyed sovereignty each in its own 
turn, as the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, 
whose turns the lot of time so rolled around that one was de- 
stroyed by another. Amid all the kingdoms of the earth, 
however, two are said to be more glorious than the rest; that 
of the Assyrians first, then that of the Romans, being separ- 
ated and distinguished from one another both in time and 
place. 

3. For as the former was earlier and the latter later, so the 
former arose in the East and the latter in the West; finally 
at the destruction of the former the beginning of the latter 
immediately appeared. All other kingdoms and all other 
kings are regarded as appendages of these. 



BOOK X 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORDS x 



EXTRACTS 

I. Though the derivation of words by the philosophers in- 
volves this belief, that homo comes from humanitas, sapiens 
from sapientia, because sapientia exists before sapiens, still 
another special cause is evident in the derivation of certain 
names, as homo from humus, whence in a true sense homo 
is so called. And we have set down certain of these deriva- 
tions in this work for the sake of example. 

44. Compilator, one who mixes the words of other men 
with his own as painters, are wont to mix and pound different 
things in a mortar. Of this crime the famous poet of Mantua 
was once accused when he had translated certain verses of 
Homer and mingled them with his own, and when he was 
called by his rivals a plunderer of the ancients he replied: 
" Magnarum esse virium clavam Herculi extorquere de 
manu ". 

194. Nepos, 2 so called from a certain kind of scorpion that 
eats its own young, excepting 1 one which has a seat upon its back; 
this one, being saved, eats its father. Whence men who eat 
up in luxury the goods of their parents are called Nepotes. 

235. Rationator, so-called, a great man because he can give 
a reason for all the things which are allowed to be wonderful. 

1 This is the only part of the Etymologies in which Isidore gives up 
every principle of organization of his subject-matter except the alpha- 
betical one. Elsewhere the terms are grouped according to their mean- 
ing, with sometimes traces of alphabetical order in the groups, but 
here the dictionary method alone is used. 

2 Grandson, sometimes has meaning of prodigal, spendthrift. 

214 [214 



BOOK XI x 
ON MAN AND MONSTERS 

ANALYSIS 

I. Man and his parts (ch. i). 

A description of the human body. 
II. The six ages of man (ch. 2). 
III. Monsters. 

1. Monstrous births (ch. 3, 1-11). 

2. Monstrous races (ch. 3, 12-27). 

3. The imaginary monsters of pagan mythology (ch. 

3> 28-39). 

4. Transformations (ch. 4). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On man and his parts. 

4. Homo is so named because he is made of humus (earth), 
as it is told in Genesis : " Et creavit Deus hominem de humo 
terrae." And the whole man made up of both substances, that 

1 In the first part of book xi are contained the remnants of the sciences 
of human anatomy and physiology as the ancients had known them. 
The second part is devoted to unnatural births, which were regarded 
as having a prophetic meaning, and to monstrous races. It is not 
known what were Isidore's immediate sources for bk. xi. Most of the 
natural science of the later Roman empire, however, was drawn ulti- 
mately from Pliny. To correspond to Isidore's topics in this book of 
the Etymologies, comparative anatomy and physiology are found in 
Pliny's Natural History, bk. xi, ch. 44 et seq., and chapters on mon- 
strous races (Gentium mirabiles, iigurae) and on unusual and unnat- 
ural births (prodigiosi, monstruosi partus) are found in bk. vii. 
215 2iq 






2l6 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2I 6 

is, of the union of soul and body, is termed homo by an abuse 
of the word. 

6. Man is two-fold, the inner and the outer. The inner man 
is the soul (anima) ; the outer man, the body. 

7. Anima received its name from the heathen, for the 
reason that it is wind (ventus). Wind is called in the Greek 
avsfzoc; and we seem to live by drawing air into the mouth. 
But this is most clearly false, because anima comes into being 
long before air can be received into the mouth, because it is 
already alive in the womb of the mother. 

8. Anima therefore is not air, as certain have thought who 
have not been able to form a conception of an incorporeal 
nature. 

9. The evangelist asserts that spiritus is the same thing as 
anima, saying : " Potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et 
rursus potestatem habeo sumendi earn." And in regard to 
the anima of the Lord at the time of the passion, the same 
evangelist thus spoke, saying : " et inclinato capite emisit 
spiritum." 

10. For what is it to send forth the spiritus, if not to lay 
down the anima. But the anima is so called because it lives, 
and the spiritus because of its spiritual nature, or because it 
breathes (inspire t) in the body. 

11. Likewise animus is the same as anima. But anima is 
of life, animus of wisdom. Whence the philosophers say that 
even without animus the life remains, and without the mind, 
anima endures. . . . 

12. . . . It is not anima, but what excels in anima that is 
called mens, its head or eye, as it were. Whence man himself 
is called the image of God in respect to mens. However all 
those things are united to anima so that it is one thing. The 
anima has received different names according to the working 
of different causes. 

13. . . . When it gives life to the body, it is anima; when it 
wills, 1 it is animus; when it knows, it is mens; when it recol- 

1 Vult. 



217] 0N MAN AND mon s ter s 217 

lects, it is memoria; when it judges what is right, it is ratio; 
when it breathes, it is spiritus; when it is conscious of any- 
thing, it is sensus. . . . 

14. Corpus is so called because being corrupted, it perishes. 
For it is perishable and mortal and must sometime be dis- 
solved. 

16. The body is made up of the four elements. For earth 
is in the flesh; air in the breath; moisture in the blood; fire 
in the vital heat. For the elements have each their own part 
in us, and something is due them when the structure is broken 
up. . . . 

18. The bodily senses are five: sight, hearing, smell, taste, 
touch. Two of these open and close ; two are always open. 

56. The arteries are so named because the air, that is, the 
breath, is carried by them from the lungs; or because they 
retain the breath of life in their narrow and close passages, 
whence they emit the sounds of the voice, which would all 
sound alike if the movement of the tongue did not create dif- 
ferences of the voice. 

yy. Lac (milk) derives its name from its color, because 
it is a white liquor, for the Greeks call white levnog and its 
nature is changed from blood; for after the birth whatever 
blood has not yet been spent in the nourishing of the womb 
flows by a natural passage to the breasts, and whitening by 
their virtue, receives the quality of milk. 

86. Ossa (bones) are the solid parts of the body. For on 
these all form and strength depend. Ossa are named from 
ustus (burned), because they were burned by the ancients, or 
as others think, from os (the mouth), because there they are 
visible, for everywhere else they are covered and concealed 
by the skin and flesh. 

92. Terga, because it is on the back that we lie flat on the 
earth {terra) ; men alone can do this, for dumb animals lie 
either on the belly or on the side ; whence the word tergum 
is applied to them mistakenly. 

108. The knees are the meeting-points of the thighs and 
lower legs; and they are called knees (genua) because in the 



2i8 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 i8 

womb they they are opposite to the cheeks (genae). For they 
adhere to them there and they are akin to the eyes, the re- 
vealers of tears and of pity. For the knees (genua) are so 
called from the cheeks (genae). 

109. In short they assert that man in his beginning and first 
formation is so folded up that the knees are above, and by 
these the eyes are shaped so that there are deep hollows. En- 
nius says : " Atque genua comprimit artagena." Thence it is 
that when men fall on their knees they at once begin to weep. 
For nature has willed that they remember their mother's 
womb where they sat in darkness, as it were, until they should 
come to the light. 

118. Cor is derived from a Greek term — what they call 
Kapdia (heart) — or, it may be, from cur a (cure). For in it 
dwell all anxious thought and wisdom. And it is near the 
lungs for this reason, that when it is fired by anger it may be 
cooled by the liquid of the lungs. It has two arteries, of which 
the left has more blood, the right, more air. From it also is 
the pulse we find in the right arm. 

120. The pulsus (pulse) is so called because it beats (pal- 
pitet), and by its evidence we perceive that there is sickness 
or health. Its motion is two- fold; a simple motion which is 
made up of a single beat, and a composite, made up of sev- 
eral movements — irregular and unequal. And these move- 
ments have definite limits. . . . 

121. The veins are so called because they are the passages 
of the flowing blood, and its streamlets spread through all the 
body, by which all the parts are moistened. 

124. The Greeks call the lungs ttTlsv/juv, because they are the 
bellows of the heart and in them is nvev^a, that is, spiritus, by 
which they are stirred and moved, whence they are called 
pulmones. . . . 

125. Jecur (liver) has its name because in it fire (ignis) 
has its seat, and from there it flies up into the head. Thence 
it spreads to the eyes and the other organs of sense and the 
limbs, and by its heat it changes into blood the liquid that it 
has appropriated from food, and this blood it furnishes to 



219] ON MAN AND MONSTERS 219 

the several parts to feed and nourish them. In the liver pleas- 
ure resides and desire, according to those who dispute about 
natural philosophy. 

127. The spleen is so called from corresponding to (supple- 
mentum) the liver on the opposite side in order that there 
may be no vacuum, and this certain men believe was formed 
with a view to laughter. For it is by the spleen we laugh, by 
the bile we are angry, by the heart we are wise, by the liver 
we love. And while these four elements remain, the animal 
is whole. 

Chapter 3. On human monstrosities. 

1. Portents, Varro says, are those births which seem to 
have taken place contrary to nature. But they are not con- 
trary to nature, because they come by the divine will, since 
the will of the creator is the nature of each thing that is 
created. Whence, too, the heathen themselves call God now 
nature, now God. 

2. A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but 
contrary to known nature. . . . 

4. Certain creations of portents seem to have been made 
with future meanings. For God sometimes wishes to indi- 
cate what is to come by disgusting features at birth, as also 
by dreams and oracles, that he may give forewarning by these, 
and indicate to certain nations or certain men coming de- 
struction. This has been proved by many trials. 

5. . . . But these portents which are sent in warning, do 
not live long, but die as soon as they are born. 

12. And just as there are monstrous individuals in separate 
races of men, so in the whole human kind there are certain 
monstrous races, as the Gigantes, Cynocephali, Cyclopes, and 
the rest. 

15. The Cynocephali are so called because they have dogs' 
heads and their very barking betrays them as beasts rather 
than men. These are born in India. 

16. The Cyclopes, too, the same India gives birth to, and 
they are named Cyclopes because they are said to have a single 



220 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 220 

eye in the midst of the forehead. These have the additional 
name dypw^ayirat because they eat nothing but the flesh of wild 
beasts. 

17. The Blemmyes, born in Libya, are believed to be head- 
less trunks, having mouth and eyes in the breast; others are 
born without necks, with eyes in their shoulders. 

18. In the remote east, races with faces of a monstrous sort 
are described. Some without noses, with formless counten- 
ances; others with lower lip so protruding that by it they 
shelter the whole face from the heat of the sun while they 
sleep; others have small mouths, and take sustenance through 
a narrow opening by means of oat-straws; a good many are 
said to be tongueless, using nod or gesture in place of words. 

19. They say the Panotii in Scythia have ears of so large 
a size that they cover the whole body with them. For nav 
in Greek means all, and wra, ears. 

21. The Satyrs are manikins with upturned noses; they 
have horns on their foreheads, and are goat-footed, such as 
the one St. Anthony saw in the desert. And he, being ques- 
tioned, is said to have answered the servant of God, saying, 
" I am mortal, one of the inhabitants of the waste, whom the 
heathen, misled by error, worship as the Fauns and Satyrs." 

23. The race of the Sciopodes is said to live in Ethiopia. 
They have one leg apiece, and are of a marvelous swiftness, 
and the Greeks call them Sciopodes from this, that in sum- 
mertime they lie on the ground on their backs and are shaded 
by the greatness of their feet. 

24. The Antipodes in Libya have feet turned backward and 
eight toes on each foot. 

28. Other fabulous monstrosities of the human race are 
said to exist, but they do not ; they are imaginary. And their 
meaning is found in the causes of things, as Geryon, King of 
Spain, who is said to have had a triple form. For there were 
three brothers of such harmonious spirit that it was, as it 
were, one soul in three bodies. 



22 1 ] ON MAN AND MONSTERS 221 

Chapter 4. On transformations to beasts. 

2. Moreover they affirm with no fabulous lying but with 
historic proof, that Diomedes' companions were changed to 
birds. And certain say that witches are created from human 
beings. For the shapes of the wicked change for their many 
villanies, and they turn bodily into beasts, whether by magic 
charms or by the use of herbs. 

3. Many creatures go through a natural change and by 
decay pass into different forms, as bees [are formed] by the 
decaying flesh of calves, as beetles from horses, locusts from 
mules, scorpions from crabs. 



BOOK XII 
ON ANIMALS 

INTRODUCTION 

The history of zoological knowledge during the ten cen- 
turies from Aristotle to Isidore may be indicated with suf- 
ficient clearness by enumerating three of the works that sur- 
vive. They are Aristotle's " History of Animals ", the 
zoological part (Books VIII-XI) of Pliny's " Natural His- 
tory ", and Isidore's " On Animals ". On the first belong- 
ing to the fourth century B. C, Cuvier has pronounced 
judgment as " one of the greatest monuments that the 
genius of man has raised to the natural sciences ". x Pliny, 
four centuries later, is commended by Cuvier for his in- 
dustry and learning, but reproached for his predilection 
for the fabulous, and his absolute lack of scientific order 
and of the scientific spirit. 2 Six centuries later a resume 
of zoological knowledge is given in the Etymologies, which 
is of no value except for the information it gives of the 
benighted character of the medieval intellect. 

Isidore's zoology is shown in a better light, however, 
when it is compared with that of the Physiologus, 2, his 

1 Cuvier, Histoire des Sciences Naturelles, vol. i, p. 166. 

2 Cuvier, vol. i, p. 264. 

3 The Physiologus probably originated at Alexandria in the first cen- 
tury A. D., and was translated into the Latin about the end of the 
fourth century. It was very popular with the church fathers. Isidore's 
De Animalibus exhibits its influence in many passages. See Lauchert, 
Physiologus (Strassburg, 1891), p. 103. A Greek version of the Physi- 

222 [222 



223J 0N ANIMALS 223 

great rival in this field throughout the Middle Ages. This 
is a collection of fabulous accounts of animals, with the 
moral and spiritual lessons that were drawn from them. 
In it the ancient science is seen in its most de-secularized 
form; nature knowledge is made absolutely subservient 
to religious teaching, and in the process actual knowledge 
is driven out and fable takes its place. It must be reck- 
oned to Isidore's credit that he resisted the temptation to 
give " the higher meaning ". 

ANALYSIS 

I. Flocks and herds and beasts of burden (ch. 1). 
II. Wild beasts (ch. 2). 

III. Small creatures (ch. 3). 

IV. Serpents (ch. 4). 
V. Worms (ch. 5). 

VI. Fishes (ch. 6). 
VII. Birds (ch. 7). 
VIII. Small flying creatures (ch. 8). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On flocks and work animals. 

1. Adam first named all living creatures, assigning a name 
to each in accordance with its purpose at that time, in view 
of the nature it was to be subject to. 

2. But the nations have named all animals in their own 
languages. But Adam did not give those names in the lan- 
guage of the Greeks or Romans or any barbaric people, but 
in that one of all languages which existed before the flood, 
and is called Hebrew. 

9. A sheep is a domesticated animal with soft wool, harm- 
less and calm in disposition. 

ologus is given by Lauchert and a Latin by Cahier in Melanges 
d'Archeologie, Paris, vols, ii, iii, iv (1851-53). 



224 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 224 

io. The wether (vervex) is so called from its strength 
{vires) ... or because it has a worm (vermen) in its head, 
and, excited by the itch of these worms, they butt one another 
and fight and smite one another with great fury. 

17. And so these animals (Ibices), as we have said, remain 
among the loftiest rocks, and if ever they perceive the hostile 
presence of wild beast or of man they throw themselves down 
from the highest summits, and land unharmed on their horns. 

18. [Deer] are foes of snakes, and when they feel that they 
are weighed down with weakness they draw snakes out from 
their holes by the breath of their nostrils and overcoming the 
deadly poison x they refresh themselves by eating them. They 
made known the plant dittany. For they eat it, and shake out 
the arrows that have stuck in them. 

19. They give a wondering attention to the whistling sound 
of the Pan's pipes. They listen sharply with up-pricked ears, 
not with hanging ears. If ever they swim across great rivers 
or seas, they lay the head on the haunch of the one in front, 
and following one another in turn they feel no weariness 
from the weight. 

43. Horses have a high spirit ; for they prance in the fields, 
they scent war, they are roused by the trumpet-sound to 
battle, they are roused by the voice and urged to the race, 
they grieve when they are beaten, they are proud when they 
win a victory. Certain know the enemy in battle, so that they 
bite the foe. Some recall their own masters, and forget obe- 
dience if their masters are changed ; some allow none but their 
masters to mount them; when their masters are slain or are 
dying, many shed tears. The horse is the only creature that 
weeps for man and feels the emotion of grief. . . . 

Chapter 2. On beasts of prey. 

5. When lions sleep, their eyes are on the watch ; when they 
walk about they obliterate their tracks with their tails that the 
hunter may not find them. When a cub is born it is said to 
sleep for three nights and three days. Then the shaking, as it 

1 Superacid pernicie veneni. 



225] 0iV ANJ MALS 225 

were, of the ground where it lies, because of its father's roar- 
ing, is said to awaken the sleeping cub. 

6. Toward man the nature of the lion is kind, so that they 
cannot become angry unless attacked. Their pity is shown 
by continual examples. For they spare the fallen, they allow 
captives they meet to return home ; they do not kill man unless 
very hungry. 

17. The Gryphes are so called because they are winged 
quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyper- 
borean Mts. In every part of their body they are lions, and 
in wings and head are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies 
of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces. 

20. They say the urine [of the lynx] is changed to the 
hardness of a precious stone, which is called lincurius, and by 
the following proof it is shown that the lynxes are conscious 
of this; for when they have urinated, they cover the urine 
with sand as well as they can, from a sort of meanness of 
nature, lest such a product be turned to the advantage of man. 

21. Cast ores (beavers) are so named from castrating. For 
their testicles are useful for medicine and therefore when they 
perceive a hunter, they castrate themselves and cut away their 
potency by a bite. Of these Cicero speaks in Scauriana: 
" They ransom themselves by that part of the body for which 
they are most sought." 

24. [The wolf] is a ravenous beast and greedy for blood, 
and of it the country people say that a man loses his voice if 
a wolf sees him first. And therefore if a person is suddenly 
silent, they say, " It is the wolf in the fable ". But if the wolf 
perceives that he has been noticed first, he lays aside his 
boldness. . . . 

25. . . . No creature is more sagacious than dogs, for they 
have more understanding than other animals. 

26. For they alone recognize their names, love their mas- 
ters, guard their masters' houses, risk their lives for their 
masters, of their own free will rush upon the prey with their 
master, do not abandon even their master's dead body. And 
finally their nature is such that they cannot exist without men. 
Iti dogs two things are to be regarded, courage and speed. 



226 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 22 6 

38. Musio is so called because it is a foe to mice (muribus). 
Common people call it cat (catus) because it catches [mice]. 
Others say, because it sees {cat at). For it has such sharp 
sight that it overcomes the darkness of the night by the bright- 
ness of its eyes. 

Chapter 3. On small animals. 

1. Mus (mouse) is a tiny animal; it has a Greek name; 1 
but any word that is derived from it becomes Latin. Others 
say mures are so named because they are born from the 
humor (moisture) of the earth. For mus is equivalent to 
terra, and from the word comes humus too. The liver of 
these creatures grows at the full moon, just as certain things 
that belong to the sea grow, which grow smaller again when 
the moon lessens. 

3. Mustella (weasel) is so called, being, as it were, mus 
longus (long mouse) ; for telum (missile) is so called from its 
length. This creature, somewhat wily in its disposition, 
moves and changes its nest in the house when it is nursing its 
young. It chases snakes and mice. And there are two sorts of 
weasels. For one is a creature of the woods, and is of a dif- 
ferent size, which the Greeks call iKTtdeg. The other wanders 
about in houses. Now they have an erroneous idea who say 
that the weasel conceives in its mouth, and gives birth through 
its ear. 2 

4. In Sardinia is a very tiny creature, spider-shaped, which 
is called solifuga, because it shuns the daylight. It is very 
common in silver mines, secretly creeping along, and it poisons 
those who unknowingly sit down on it. 

8. Grillus (cricket or grasshopper) has its name from the 
sound of its voice. This creature walks backward, tunnels 
the earth, makes a loud sound at night. The ant goes hunting 
it, having itself lowered by a hair into its hole, first blowing 
the dust out, that it may not hide itself, and thus it is dragged 
out in the embrace of the ant. 

1 The Greek is fivq. 

2 A notion found in the Physiologus. 



227] ON ANIMALS 22 y 

9. Formica (ant) is so called because it carries morsels 
(ferat micas) of grain. Its wisdom is great. For it looks 
forward to the future and in summer makes ready food to be 
eaten in winter. At the harvest, too, it picks out wheat and 
refuses to touch barley. After it rains it always puts out the 
grain [to dry] . It is said there are ants in Ethiopia of a dog's 
shape, and these dig up golden sands with their feet, and they 
watch them in order that no one may carry them off, and 
those that do seize them, they pursue till they kill. 

10. Formic oleon (ant-lion) has its name for this, that it is 
a lion of the ants, or at least ant and lion at the same time. 
For it is a small creature that is very hostile to ants. It hides 
itself in the sand and kills the ants as they are carrying grains. 
And it is called lion and ant because it is, as it were, an ant 
to other animals, but a lion to ants. 1 

Chapter 4. On serpents. 

3. The serpent has received its name because it crawls 
(serpit) with unnoticed steps ; for it does not go with strides 
that are observable, but creeps on by the trifling impulses of 
its scales. But those that go on four feet, like lizards and 
newts, are called not serpents but reptiles. Now serpents are 
reptiles because they creep (reptant) on their belly and 
breast; and there are as many poisons as there are genera; 
as many deaths as there are species ; as many dolors, as colors. 

4. The dragon (draco) is the largest of all serpents and of 
all living things upon earth. This the Greeks call dparnvra- 
And it was taken into the Latin so that it was called Draco. 
And frequently being dragged from caves it rushes into the 
air, and the air is thrown into commotion on account of it. 
And it is crested, has a small face and narrow blow-holes 

1 This animal is of literary origin and illustrates the danger of a 
literary science. For some reason the Septuagint translators trans- 
lated the Hebrew word for lion in Job 4: 11 by the word uvpfajKoteuv. 
The commentators later on, in their efforts to explain the term, evolved 
a new animal, a compound of ant and lion. See Lauchert, Geschichte 
des Physiologies, p. 21, and art. " Physiologus " in the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, nth ed. 



228 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 22 8 

through which it draws its breath and thrusts out its tongue 
And it has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it is 
dangerous for its stroke, rather than for its jaws. 

5. It is harmless in the way of poison, but poison is not 
necessary for it to cause death, because it kills whatever it 
has entangled in its folds. And from it the elephant is not 
safe because of its size. For it lies in wait near the paths by 
which elephants usually go, and entangles the elephant's legs 
in its folds, and kills it by strangling. It grows in Ethiopia 
and in India, in the very burning of perennial heat. 

12. It is said that when the asp begins to feel the influence 
of the wizard who summons her forth with certain forms of 
words suited thereto, in order that he may bring her out from 
her hole — when the asp is unwilling to come forth, she presses 
one ear against the earth, and the other she closes and covers 
up with her tail, and so refuses to hear those magical sounds, 
and does not come out at the incantation. 

36. The Salamander is so called because it is strong against 
fire ; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other 
[poisonous animals] strike individuals; this slays very many 
at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the 
fruit with poison and slays those who eat it; nay, even if it 
falls in a well, the power of the poison slays those who drink 
it. It fights against fires, and alone among living things, ex- 
tinguishes them. For it lives in the midst of flames without 
pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not 
burned, but it puts the fire out. 

Chapter 5. On worms. 

1. A worm is a creature that as a rule comes into being 
without any begetting from flesh or wood or any earthy sub- 
stance, although sometimes they are born from eggs, as the 
scorpion. Worms belong either to earth or water or air x or 
flesh or leaves or wood or clothes. 

3. Sanguissuga, a water worm, is so named because it sucks 
blood. For it lies in wait for drinkers, and when it is carried 

1 Aranea, vermis aeris, 12, 5, 2. 



229] 0N ANIMALS 229 

into their throats or fastens itself anywhere, it draws the 
blood, and when it has taken its fill of gore, it vomits it out, 
to suck in again fresh blood. 

Chapter 6. On fishes. 

3. Certain kinds of fishes are amphibious, being so called 
because they have the practice of walking on land and of 
swimming in the water. 

4. Men gave names to the beasts of the field and wild 
animals and birds, before the fishes, because they were seen 
and known first. And later, when the kinds of fishes had 
been learned by degrees, names were applied either from their 
likeness to land animals, or to suit the species, whether in re- 
gard to habits, color, shape, or sex. 

6. [Fish receive their names] from sex, as the musculus 
(mussel) because it is the masculine of whale, for by union 
with the mussel it is said this monster conceives. 

8. There are huge sorts of whales with bodies the size of 
mountains, like the whale that received Jonah, whose belly 
was of such magnitude that it held something like a hell, the 
prophet saying: " He heard me from the belly of hell ". 

14. Thynni (tunnies) have a Greek name. They appear in 
spring-time. They come in on the right side and go out on 
the left. They are supposed to do this because they see more 
keenly with the right eye than with the left. 

25. Mullus, so called because it is mollis (soft) and most 
tender, by eating which they relate that lust is held in check 
and that the keenness of the sight is dimmed; moreover men 
who have often eaten it have a fishy smell. The killing of a 
mullet in wine brings a distaste for wine to those who have 
drunk thereof. 

34. Echeneis, a small fish, half-a-foot long, took its name 
because it holds a ship x back by clinging to it. Though the 
winds rush and the gusts rage it is seen nevertheless that the 
ship stands still as if rooted in the sea, and does not move, 
not because the fish holds it back but merely because it clings 
to it. 



230 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [230 

35. The uranoscope is so called from an eye which it has in 
its head, by which it always looks upward. 

41. The likeness of the eel (anguilla) to the snake (anguis) 
has given it its name. Its origin is in mud. Whence when- 
soever it is taken, it is so slippery that the more determinedly 
one squeezes it the quicker it slips away. They say, too, that 
a river of the east, the Ganges, produces them three hundred 
feet long. If an eel is killed in wine they who drink of it 
have a loathing for wine. 

43. Lamprey (muraena) the Greeks term iuvpaiva, because it 
coils itself in circles. They say that this fish is of the female 
sex only, and that it conceives from the serpent. On this ac- 
count it is enticed by the fishermen by hissing like a serpent, 
and it is taken. It is killed with difficulty by the stroke of a 
club but at once by that of a ferule. It is certain that it has 
its life in its tail, for if the head is struck it is hard to kill it, 
but when its tail is struck it dies at once. 

53. Mussels (musculi) as we have said before are shell- 
fish, and oysters conceive from their milk, and they are called 
musculi as if it were masculi. 

56. Certain relate what is incredible, that ships go more 
slowly if they carry a tortoise's right foot. 

Chapter 7. On birds. 

3. Birds (aves) are so called because they have no definite 
roads (viae) but speed hither and thither through pathless 
(avia) ways. 

9. Many names of birds were evidently made up from the 
sound of their cry, as grus, corvus, cygnus, pavo, ulula, 
cuculus, graculus, and so on. For the variety of their cry 
told men what they were to be called. 

10. The eagle (aquila) is so called from its sharpness 
(acumine) of sight. For it is said to possess such power of 
vision that when it is borne over the sea with motionless wing 
and is not visible to human sight, even from such a lofty place 
it sees the fishes swim, and descending like a missile from an 
engine it seizes its booty and flies with it to the shore. 

11. It is also said not to lower its gaze from the rays of the 



231] ON ANIMALS 23 1 

sun, and for this reason it lifts its young ones in its talons and 
exposes them to the rays of the sun, and keeps as worthy of 
its kind those which it sees keep a motionless gaze, and drops 
down as degenerate whatever ones it sees turning their gaze 
downward. 

18. The swan (cygnus) is so called from singing, because 
it pours forth sweet song in modulated tones. And it sings 
sweetly for the reason that it has a long curving neck, and it 
must needs be that the voice, struggling out by a long and 
winding way, should utter various notes. 

19. They say that in the Hyperborean regions when cithara 
players lead, many swans fly up and sing very harmoniously. 

44. The crow (comix), a bird full of years, has a Greek 
name 1 among the Latins, and augurs say it increases a man's 
anxieties by the tokens it gives, that it reveals ambushes, and 
foretells the future. It is great wickedness to believe this, 
that God entrusts his counsels to crows. 

66. To the hoopoe (upupa) the Greeks give its name be- 
cause it attends to (consideret) human excrements and feeds 
on stinking filth, a most foul bird, helmeted with upstanding 
crests, always lingering at graves and human excrements. 
And whoever anoints himself with its blood, on going to sleep 
will see demons choking him. 

67. Tuci, which is the name the Spaniards give to cuckoos 
(cuculi), were evidently named from their peculiar cry. These 
have a time for coming, perched on the shoulders of kites 
because of their short and weak flights, in order that they 
may not grow weary and fail in the long spaces of the air. 
Their saliva produces grasshoppers. [The cuckoo] eats the 
eggs it finds in the sparrow's nest, and substitutes its own, 
which the sparrow receives and sets on and cares for. 

79. All kinds of flying things are born twice. For first the 
eggs are born, then by the heat of the mother's body they are 
formed and given life. 

1 Comix is not a Greek word, as Isidore seems to imply. Its nearest 
Greek equivalent is Kopuvrj. 



232 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [232 

Chapter 8. On small winged creatures. 

1. Bees {apes) are so called because they hold to one an- 
other by the feet, or it may be because they are born without 
feet {pes). For it is only later on that they get feet and 
wings. These are skilful in the business of producing honey, 
they dwell in homes allotted to them, they arrange their dwell- 
ings with a skill that makes no mistake, they store the hive 
from various flowers, and forming their wax-cells, they fill 
the camp with unnumbered young, and they have an army 
and kings, they make wars, flee from smoke, and are enraged 
by noise. 

2. A good many have proved by experiment that these 
spring from the carcasses of cattle. For in order to create 
them the flesh of slain calves is beaten, in order that worms 
may be created from the rotten gore, and these afterward 
turn to bees. In a correct sense bees {apes) are so called be- 
cause they spring from boves as hornets from horses, drones 
from mules, wasps from asses. 



BOOKS XIII AND XIV 



INTRODUCTION 



In books XIII and XIV Isidore gives a complete and 
systematic account of the material universe, taking up and 
treating in order the heavens, the atmosphere, water, and 
earth. His treatment of the last two is especially full and 
constitutes a geographical description of the earth's surface 
as known at his time. 1 

ANALYSIS 

I. The universe (Bk. XII, ch. i). 
II. Atoms (ch. 2). 

III. Elements (ch. 3). 

IV. The heavens (chs. 4-6). 

1. The parts of the heavens. 2 

2. The circles of the heavens. 2 

V. The air and the clouds (chs. 7-1 1). 

1. Thunder. 

2. Lightning. 

3. The rainbow and cloud forms. 

4. The winds. 

VI. Waters (chs. 12-22). 

1. Springs. 

2. The sea. 

3. The ocean. 

4. The Mediterranean. 

1 Cf. Beazley, The Dawn of Modern Geography, pp. 366-67. See also 
p. 53, note. 

2 Repeated with little change from De Astronomia. See pp. 145, 146. 

2331 233 



234 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [234 

5. Bays, etc. 

6. Lakes. 

7. The abyss. 

8. Rivers. 

VII. The dry land (Bk. XIV, ch. 1). 

1. The circle of lands (chs. 2-5). 

(1) Asia. 

(2) Europe. 

(3) Africa. 

2. Islands (ch. 6). 

3. Promontories (ch. 7). 

4. Mountains, etc. (ch. 8). 

5. The lower parts of the earth (ch. 9). 



BOOK XIII 

On the Universe and its Parts 

extracts 

Preface. — In this book, as it were in a brief outline we 
have commented on certain causes in the heavens, and the 
sites of the lands, and the spaces of the sea, so that the reader 
may run them over in a little time, and learn their etymolo- 
gies and causes with compendious brevity. 

Chapter 1. On the universe. 

I. The universe is the heavens, the earth, the sea, and what 
in them is the work of God, of whom it is said : " And the 
universe was made by him ". The universe (mundus) is so 
named in Latin by the philosophers because it is in continued 
motion (motu), as for example, the heavens, the sun, moon, 
air, seas. For no rest is permitted to its elements, and there- 
fore it is always in motion. 

234] 234 






235] 0N THE UNIVERSE AND ITS PARTS 235 

2. Whence also the elements seem to Varro living creatures, 
since, he says, they move of themselves. The Greeks have 
borrowed a name for the universe from ornament, on account 
of the variety of the elements and the beauty of the stars. 
For it is called among them Koo/wg, which means ornament. 
For with the eyes of the flesh we see nothing fairer than the 
universe. 

3. It is agreed that there are four climata, that is, tracts 
of the universe : East, West, North, South. 

Chapter 2. On the atoms. 

1. The philosophers call by the name of atoms certain parts 
of bodies in the universe so very minute that they do not 
appear to the sight, nor admit of -our,, that is, division, whence 
they are called atoms. These are said to flit through the void 
of the whole universe with restless motions, and to move 
hither and thither like the finest dust that is seen when the 
rays of the sun pour through the windows. From these 
certain philosophers of the heathen have thought that trees 
are produced, and herbs and all fruits, and fire and water, 
and all things are made out of them. 

2. Atoms exist either in a body, or in time, or in number, 
or in the letters. In a body as a stone. You divide it into 
parts, and the parts themselves you divide into grains like 
the sands, and again you divide the very grains of sand into 
the finest dust, until if you could, you would come to some 
little particle which is now [such] that it cannot be divided or 
cut. This is an atom in a body. 

3. In time, the atom is thus understood: you divide a year, 
for example, into months, the months into days, the days into 
hours, the parts of the hours still admit of division, until you 
come to such an instant of time and fragment of a moment as 
it were, that it cannot be lengthened by any little bit and there- 
fore it cannot be divided. This is the atom of time. 

4. In numbers, as for example, eight is divided into fours, 
again four into twos, then two into ones. One is an atom 
because it is indivisible. So also in case of the letters. For 



236 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [236 

you divide a speech into words, words into syllables, the syl- 
lable into letters. The letter, the smallest part, is the atom 
and cannot be divided. The atom is therefore what cannot be 
divided, like the point in geometry. . . . 

Chapter 3. On the elements. 

1. Hyle 1 is the name the Greeks apply to the first material 
of things, which is in no way formed, but has a capacity for 
all bodily forms, and out of it these visible elements are 
shaped. Wherefore they have derived their name from this 
source. 2 This hyle the Latins called materia, for the reason 
that everything in the rough from which something is made, 
is always called materia. . . . 

2. The Greeks moreover call the elements oToixeia* because 
they are akin to one another in the harmony of like quality and 
a sort of common character, for they are said to be allied with 
one another in a natural way, now tracing their origin from 
fire all the way to earth, now from earth all the way to fire, 
so that fire fades into air, air is thickened to water, water 
coarsened to earth, and again earth is dissolved into water, 
water refined into air, air rarefied into fire. 

3. Wherefore all elements are present in all, but each of 
them has received its name from that which it has in greater 
degree. And they have been assigned by divine providence 
to the living creatures that are suited to them, for the Creator 
himself filled the heaven with angels, the air with birds, the 
sea with fish, the earth with men and other living creatures. 

Chapter 5. On the parts of the heavens. 

1. Ether is the place in which the stars are, and it signifies 
that fire which is separated on high from the whole universe. 
Ether is the element itself ; and aethra is the glow of the ether 
and is a Greek word. 

1 vkr\. 

2 1, e., elementa = hylementa. 

3 The word aroixeiov means " one in a series." 



2 37~\ 0N THE UNIVERSE AND ITS PARTS 237 

Chapter 7. On the air and the clouds. 

1. Air is emptiness, having more rarity mixed with it than 
the other elements. Of it Virgil says : 

Longum per inane secutus. 

Air {aer) is so called from aipetv (to raise), because it sup- 
ports the earth or, it may be, is supported by it. This belongs 
partly to the substance of heaven, partly to that of the earth. 
For yonder thin air where windy and gusty blasts cannot 
come into existence, belongs to the heavenly part; but this 
more disordered air which takes a corporeal character be- 
cause of dank exhalations, is assigned to earth, and it has 
many subdivisions : for being set in motion it makes winds ; 
and being vigorously agitated, lightnings and thunderings; 
being contracted, clouds; being thickened, rain; when the 
clouds freeze, snow; when thick clouds freeze in a more dis- 
ordered way, hail ; being spread abroad, it causes fine weather ; 
for it is known that thick air is a cloud and that a cloud that 
thins and melts away, is air. 

2. ... Now the thickening of the air makes clouds. For 
the winds gather the air together and make a cloud. Whence 
is the expression : " Atque in nubem cogitur aer." 

Chapter 8. On thunder. 

1. Thunder (tonitruum) is so called because its sound ter- 
rifies (terreat)., for tonus is sound. And it sometimes shakes 
everything so severely that it seems to have split the heavens, 
since when a great gust of the most furious wind suddenly 
bursts into the clouds, its circular motion becoming stronger 
and seeking an outlet, it tears asunder with great force the 
cloud it has hollowed out, and thus comes to our ears with a 
horrifying noise. 

2. One ought not to wonder at this since a vesicle, however 
small, emits a great sound when it is exploded. Lightning is 
caused at the same time with the thunder, but the former is 
seen more quickly because it is bright and the latter comes to 
our ears more slowly. . . . 



238 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 23 g 

Chapter 9. On thunder-bolts. 

1. . . .Clouds striking together make thunder-bolts: for 
in all things collision creates fire, as we see in the case of 
stones, or when wheels rub together, or in the woods. In the 
same way fire is created in the clouds ; whence they are clouds 
before, lightnings later. 

2. It is certain that it is from wind and fire that thunder- 
bolts are formed in the clouds, and that they are launched by 
the impulse of the winds; and the fire of a thunder-bolt has 
greater force in penetrating because it is made of subtler ele- 
ments than our fire, that is, the fire we make use of. ... 

Chapter 10. On the rainbow and the causes of clouds. 

1. The rainbow is so called from its resemblance to a bent 
bow. Its proper name is Iris and it is called Iris, as it were 
aeris (of the air), because it comes down through the air to 
earth. It comes from the radiance of the sun when hollow 
clouds receive the sun's ray full in front, and they create the 
appearance of a bow, and rarified water, bright air, and a 
misty cloud under the beams of the sun create those varied 
hues. 

2. Rains (pluviae) are so called because they flow, as if 
Huviae. They arise by exhalation from earth and sea, and 
being carried aloft they fall in drops on the lands, being acted 
upon by the heat of the sun or condensed by strong winds. 

13. Shadow {umbra) is air that lacks sun, and is so called 
because it is made when we interpose ourselves in the rays of 
the sun. It moves and is ill-defined, because of the motion of 
the sun and the force of the wind. As often as we move in 
the sun, it seems to move with us, because wherever we en- 
counter the rays of the sun, we take the light from that place, 
and so the shadow seems to walk with us and to imitate our 
motions. 

Chapter 11. On the winds. 

2. There are four chief winds. The first of these is from 
the east, Subsolanus, and Auster from the south, Favonius 
from the west, and from Septentrio (north) a wind of the 



239] 0N THE UNIVERSE AND ITS PARTS 239 

same name blows. These winds have kindred winds one on 
each side. 

3. Subsolanus has on its right Vulturnus, on its left Eurus; 
Auster has on its right Euroauster, on its left Austroafricus; 
Favonius on its right Africus, on its left Corns. Further, 
Septentrio has on its right Circius, on its left Aquilo. These 
twelve winds surround the globe of the universe with their 
blasts. 

20. ... In the spring and autumn the greatest possible 
storms appear when it is neither full summer nor full winter, 
whence, as [the time] is an intervening one, bordering on both 
seasons, storms are caused from the conjunction of contrary 
airs. 

Chapter 12. On the waters. 

2. The two most powerful elements of human life are fire 
and water, whence they who are forbidden fire and water are 
seriously punished. 

3. The element of water is master of all the rest. For the 
waters temper the heavens, fertilize the earth, incorporate air 
in their exhalations, climb aloft and claim the heavens; for 
what is more marvelous than the waters keeping their place 
in the heavens ! 

4. It is too small a thing to come to such a height; they 
carry with them thither swarms of fishes ; pouring forth, they 
are the cause of all growth on the earth. They produce fruits, 
they make fruit trees and herbs grow, they scour away filth, 
wash away sin, and give drink to all living things. 

Chapter 13. On the different qualities of waters. 

5. Linus, a fountain of Arcadia, does not allow miscarriages 
to take place. In Sicily are two springs, of which one makes 
the sterile woman fertile, the other makes the fertile, sterile. 
In Thessaly are two rivers ; they say that sheep drinking from 
one become black; from the other, white; from both, parti- 
colored. 

10. Hot springs in Sardinia cure the eyes; they betray 
thieves, for their guilt is revealed by blindness. They say 



240 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 24 q 

there is a spring in Epirus in which lighted torches are ex- 
tinguished, and torches that are extinguished are lighted. 
Among the Garamantes they say there is a spring so cold in 
the daytime that it cannot be drunk, so hot at night that it 
cannot be touched. 

Chapter 14. On the sea. 

2. . . . The depth of the sea varies; still the level of its 
surface is invariable. 

3. Moreover that the sea does not increase, though it re- 
ceives all streams and all springs, is accounted for in this 
way; partly that its very greatness does not feel the waters 
flowing in; secondly, because the bitter water consumes the 
fresh that is added, or that the clouds draw up much water to 
themselves, or that the winds carry it off, and the sun partly 
dries it up; lastly, because the water leaks through certain 
secret holes in the earth, and turns and runs back to the 
sources of rivers and to the springs. 

Chapter 15. On the ocean. 

1. Oceanus is so named by both Greeks and Latins because 
it flows like a circle around the circle of the land; it may be 
from its speed because it runs swiftly (ocius) ; or because 
like the heavens it glows with a dark purple color. Oceanus 
is, as it were, nvaveog (dark purple). It is this that embraces 
the shores of the lands, approaching and receding with alter- 
nate tides. For when the winds breathe in the depths, it 
either pushes the waters away or sucks them back. 

2. And it has taken different names from the neighboring 
lands ; as G alliens, Germanicus, Scythicus, Caspius, Hyrcanus, 
Atlanticus, G adit anus. The Gaditanian strait was named 
from Gades where the entrance to the Mare Magnum first 
opens from the Ocean. Whence when Hercules had come to 
Gades he placed the columns there, believing that there was 
the limit of the circle of the lands. 

Chapter 16. On the Mediterranean Sea. 

1. The Mare Magnum is that which flows from the west 
out of the Ocean and extends toward the South, and then 



241] 0iV THE UNIVERSE AND ITS PARTS 241 

stretches to the North. And it is called Magnum because the 
rest of the seas are smaller in comparison with it. It is also 
called Mediterranean because it flows through the midst of 
the land (per mediant terram) as far as the Orient, separating 
Europe and Africa and Asia. 

Chapter 20. On the abyss. 

1. The abyss is the deep water which cannot be penetrated; 
whether caverns of unknown waters from which springs and 
rivers flow; or the waters that pass secretly beneath, whence 
it is called abyss. For all waters or torrents return by secret 
channels to the abyss which is their source. 

Chapter 21. On rivers. 

6. Certain of the rivers have received their names from 
causes peculiar to them, and of these some which are told of 
as famous in history should be mentioned. 

7. Geon is a river issuing from Paradise and surrounding 
the whole of Ethiopia, being called by this name because it 
waters the land of Egypt by its flood, for yrj in the Greek 
means terra in the Latin. This river is called Nile by the 
Egyptians, on account of the mud which it brings, which gives 
fertility. 

8. The river Ganges, which the holy Scriptures call Phison, 
issuing from Paradise, takes its course toward the regions of 
India. ... It is said to rise in the manner of the Nile and 
overflow the lands of the East. 

9. The Tigris, a river of Mesopotamia, rises in Paradise, 
and flows opposite the Assyrians (contra Assyrios), and after 
many windings flows into the Dead Sea. And it is called by 
this name because of its velocity, like a wild beast that runs 
with great speed. 

10. The Euphrates, a river of Mesopotamia, greatly abound- 
ing in gems, rises in Paradise and flows through the midst of 
Babylonia. ... It irrigates Mesopotamia in certain places 
just as the Nile does Alexandria. Sallust, however, a most re- 
liable author, asserts that the Tigris and the Euphrates arise 
from one source in Armenia, and going by different ways are 



242 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE r 2z , 2 

far separated, an intervening space of many miles being left, 
and the land which is enclosed by them is called Mesopotamia. 
Therefore as Hieronymous noted, there must be a different 
explanation of the rivers of Paradise. 

24. Tanus was the first king of the Scythians, from whom 
the river Tanais is said to have been named. It rises in the 
Riphaean forest, and separates Europe from Asia, flowing in 
the midst between two divisions of the world, and emptying 
into the Pontus. 

35. Certain rivers were overwhelmed in the flood, and shut 
off by the mass of the lands, but certain ones which were not, 
burst forth by passages that were at that time violently formed 
from the abyss. 

Chapter 22. On floods. 

2. The first flood occurred under Noah, when the Omnipo- 
tent, offended at man's guilty deeds, covered the whole circle 
of the lands r and destroyed all, and there was one stretch of 
sky and sea; and we observe the proof of this to the present 
time in the stones which we are wont to go to see in the distant 
mountains, which have mingled in them the shells of mussels 
and oysters, and besides are often hollowed by the waters. 

3. The second flood was in Achaea in the time of the patri- 
arch Jacob and of Ogygius, who was the founder and king of 
Eleusina, and gave his name to the place and time. 

4. The third flood was in Thessaly in the time of Moses 
and Amphictyon, who reigned third after Cecrops. At which 
time a flood of waters destroyed the greater part of the peo- 
ples of Thessaly, a few escaping by taking refuge in the 
mountains, especially on mount Parnassus, on whose circuit- 
Deucalion then possessed dominion. And he received those 
who fled to him on rafts, and warmed and fed them on the 
twin peaks of Parnassus, and so the fables of the Greeks say 
that the human race was re-created from stones — because of 
the inborn hardness of the heart of man. 

1 Orbis. 



243] 0yV THE UNIVER S E AND ITS PARTS 243 

BOOK XIV 

On the Earth and its Parts 
extracts 

Chapter 1. On the earth. 

1. The earth is placed in the middle region of the universe, 
being situated like a center at an equal interval from all parts 
of heaven ; in the singular number it means the whole circle ;* 
in the plural 2 the separate parts ; and reason gives different 
names for it; for it is called terra from the upper part where 
it suffers attrition (teritur) ; humus from the lower and 
humid part, as for example, under the sea; again, tellus, be- 
cause we take (tollimus) its fruits; it is also called ops be- 
cause it brings opulence. It is likewise called arva, from 
ploughing (arando) and cultivating. 

2. Earth in distinction from water is called dry; since the 
Scripture says that " God called the dry land, earth ". For 
dryness is the natural property of earth. Its dampness it gets 
by its relation to water. As to its motion (earthquakes) 
some say it is wind in its hollow parts, the force of which 
causes it to move. 

3. Others say that a generative water moves in the lands, 
and causes them to strike together, sicut vas, as Lucretius 
says. Others have it that the earth is sponge-shaped, and its 
fallen parts lying in ruins cause all the upper parts to shake. 
The yawning of the earth also is caused either by the motion 
of the lower water, or by frequent thunderings, or by winds 
bursting out of the hollow parts of the earth. 

1 Orbem. 2 Terrae. 

Op em fert frugibus. 



244 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 ** 

Chapter 2. On the circle of lands. 1 

1. The circle of lands (orbis) is so called from its round- 
ness, which is like that of a wheel, whence a small wheel is 
called orbiculus. For the Ocean flowing about on all sides 
encircles its boundaries. It is divided into three parts; of 
which the first is called Asia; the second, Europe; the third, 
Africa. 

2. These three parts the ancients did not divide equally; 
for Asia stretches from the South through the East to the 
North, and Europe from the North to the West, and thence 
Africa from the West to the South. Whence plainly the two, 
Europe and Africa, occupy one-half, and Asia alone the other. 
But the former were made into two parts because the Great 
Sea enters from the Ocean between them and cuts them apart. 
Wherefore if you divide the circle of lands into two parts, 
East and West, Asia will be in one, and in the other, Europe 
and Africa. 

Chapter 3. On Asia. 

1. Asia was so called from the name of a certain woman 
who held dominion over the East in the time of the ancients. 
Lying in the third part of the circle of lands it is bounded 
on the east by the sun-rise, on the south by the ocean, on the 
west by our sea, on the north by lake Maeotis and the river 
Tanais. It has many provinces and regions, of which I shall 
briefly explain the names and sites, beginning with Paradise. 

2. Paradise is a place lying in the parts of the Orient, whose 
name is translated out of the Greek into the Latin as hortus. 
In the Hebrew it is called Eden, which in our tongue means 
delight. And the two being joined mean garden of delight; 
for it is planted with every kind of wood and fruit-bearing 
tree, having also the tree of life ; there is neither cold nor heat 
there, but a continual spring temperature. 

3. And a spring, bursting forth from its center, waters the 
whole grove, and divides into four rivers that take their rise 
there. Approach to this place was closed after man's sin. 

1 See map, p. 5. 



245] 0N THE UNIVERSE AND ITS PARTS 245 

For it is hedged in on every side by sword-like flame, 1 that is, 
girt by a wall of fire whose burning almost reaches the 
heaven. 

4. A guard of cherubim, too, that is, of angels, is set over 
the burning of the fiery rampart to ward off evil spirits, in 
order that the flames may keep men off, and good angels, 
bad ones, that the approach to Paradise may not be open to 
any flesh or to the spirit of wickedness. 

5. India is so called from the river Indus, by which it is 
bounded on the west. It stretches from the southern sea all 
the way to the sun-rise, and from the north all the way to 
Mount Caucasus, having many peoples and cities and the 
island of Taprobana, full of elephants, and Chryse and 
Argyra, rich in gold and silver, and Tyle, which never lacks 
leaves on its trees. 

Chapter 4. On Europe. 

2. Europe, which was parted off to form a third part of the 
circle, begins at the river Tanais, passing to the west along the 
Northern ocean as far as the limits of Spain. Its Eastern and 
Southern parts begin at the Pontus, extend along the whole 
Mare Magnum, and end at the island of Gades. 

Chapter 5. On Libya (Africa). 

3. It begins at the boundaries of Egypt, 2 extending along 
the South through Ethiopia as far as Mt. Atlas. On the 
north it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, and it ends at 
the strait of Gades, having the provinces Libya Cyrenensis, 
Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthago, Numidia, Mauri- 
tania Stifensis, Mauritania, Tingitana, and in the neighbor- 
hood of the sun's heat, Ethiopia. 

14. Ethiopia is so called from the color of its people, who 
are scorched by the nearness of the sun. The color of the 
people betrays the sun's intensity, for there is never-ending 
heat here. Whatever there is of Ethiopia is under the south 



1 Romphaea flamma. Cf. Etytn., i8 3 6, 3. 

2 Egypt is regarded as part of Asia. 14, 3, 27-28 



246 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 24 5 

pole. Towards the west it is mountainous, sandy in the 
middle, and toward the eastern region, a desert. Its situation 
extends from the Atlas Mts. on the west to the bounds of 
Egypt on the east. It is bounded on the south by the ocean, 
on the north by the river Nile. It has many peoples, of di- 
verse appearance and fear-inspiring because of their mon- 
strous aspect. 

17. Besides the three parts of the circle there is a fourth 
part across the Ocean on the South, 1 which is unknown to us 
on account of the heat of the sun, in whose boundaries, ac- 
cording to story, the Antipodes are said to dwell. 

Chapter 6. On Islands. 

2. Britannia, an island of the Ocean, completely separated 
from the circle of lands by the sea that flows between, is called 
by the name of its people. It lies in the rear of the Gauls and 
looks toward Spain. Its circuit is 4,875 miles ; there are many 
large rivers in it and hot springs, and an abundant and varied 
supply of metals. Jet is very common there, and pearls. 

3. Thanatos, an island of the Ocean in the Gallic sea, 
separated from Britain by a narrow strait, with fields rich in 
grain and a fertile soil. It is called Thanatos from the death 
of snakes, for it is destitute of them itself, and earth taken 
thence to any part of the world kills snakes at once. 

4. Thyle is the furthest island in the ocean, between the 
region of North and that of West, 2 beyond Britain, having its 
name from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer 
halt, and there is no day beyond it; whence the sea there is 
sluggish and frozen. 

6. Scotia, the same as Hibernia, an island very near Britain, 
narrower in the extent of its lands but more fertile; this 
reaches from Africa towards Boreas, and Iberia and the Can- 
tabrian ocean are opposite to the first part of it. Whence, 
too, it is called Hibernia. It is called Scotia because it is in- 

*Extra tres autem partes orbis, quarta pars trans Oceanum interior 
est in Meridie. 
2 See p. 145. 



247] 0X THE UNIVERSE AXD ITS PARTS 2 ^y 

habited by the tribes of Scots. There are no snakes there. 
few birds, no bees ; and so if any one scatters among bee- 
hives stones or pebbles brought thence, the swarms desert 
them. 

8. The Happy Isles (Fortunatae insulae) ... lie in the 
Ocean opposite the left of Mauretania, very near the West, 
and separated from one another by the sea. 

12. Taprobana is an island lying close to India on the South- 
east, where the Indian Ocean begins, extending in length 
eight hundred and seventy-five miles, in width, six hundred 
and twenty-five. It is separated [from India] by a river that 
flows between. It is all full of pearls and gems. Part of it is 
full of wild beasts and elephants, but men occupy part. In 
this island they say that there are two summers and two 
winters in one year, and that the place blooms twice with 
flowers. 

21. Delos is said to be so named because after the flood 
which is said to have come in the time of Ogygius, when con- 
tinuous night had overshadowed the circle of lands for many 
months, it was lightened by the rays of the sun before all 
lands, and got its name from that, because it was first made 
visible to the eye. For the Greeks call visible SqXog- 

Chapter 9. On the under parts of the Earth. 

9. Gehenna is a place of fire and sulphur, which they think 
is so named from the valley sacred to idols which is near the 
wall of Jerusalem, which was filled in former time with bodies 
of the dead. For there the Hebrews used to sacrifice their 
own sons to demons, and the place itself was called Gehen- 
non. Therefore the place of future punishment where sin- 
ners are to be tortured is denoted by the name of this place. 
(We read in Job) that there is a double Gehenna, both of 
fire and of frost. 

11. Just as the heart of an animal is in its midst, so also 
infemus is said to be in the midst of the earth. 



BOOK XV 
ON BUILDINGS AND FIELDS 

ANALYSIS 

I. Cities (ch. i). 

Of India (6), Persia (7-10), Mesopotamia (12-13), 
Syria (14-15), Palestine (16-26), Phoenicia 
(27-28), Egypt (31-36), Asia Minor (37-41), 
Greece (43-48), Italy (49-62), Gaul (63-65), 
Spain (66-72), Northern Africa (74-77). 
II. Architecture. 1 

1. City architecture (ch. 2). 

a. Kinds of cities (3-14). 

b. Walls (17-21). 

c. Gates, squares, sewers, etc. (22-46). 

2. Dwellings (ch. 3). 

3. Buildings for religious purposes (ch. 4). 

4. Storehouses (ch. 5). 

5. Workshops (ch. 6). 

6. Entrances (ch. 7). 

7. Parts of buildings (ch. 8). 

8. Defences (ch. 9). 

1 Architecture appears in a disintegrated form in the Etymologies 
(bks. xv, chs. 2-12; xix, chs. 8-19). A comparison with Vitruvius's 
work on architecture (translated by J. Gwilt, London, 1880) shows that 
the main differences between the subjects treated by Isidore and those 
in Vitruvius's work lie in the omission by the former of the account of 
building materials (bk. ii), temple architecture, water supply (bk. viii), 
dialling, and mechanics. 

248 [248 



; 



249] 0N BUILDINGS AND FIELDS 249 

9. Tents (ch. 10). 

10. Tombs (ch. 11). 

11. Buildings in the country (ch. 12). 

III. Fields, landmarks, land-measures 1 (chs. 13-15). 

IV. Roads (ch. 16). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 1. On cities. 

5. The Jews assert that Shem, son of Noah, whom they call 
Melchisedeck, was the first after the flood to found the city 
of Salem in Syria, in which was the kingdom of the same 
Melchisedeck. This city the Jebusaei held later, from whom 
it got the name Jebus, and so the two names being united, 
Jebus and Salem became Hierusalem, and this was later called 
Hierosolyma by Solomon, as if Hierosolomonia. 

42. Constantinople, a city of Thrace, Constantine called 
after his own name, the only city equal to Rome in deeds and 
power. This was first founded by Pausanias, king of the 
Spartans, and called Byzantium, because it extends between 
the Adriatic and the Propontis, or because it is a store-house 
for the wealth of land and sea. 2 Whence Constantine judged 
it very fit to become his store-house for land and sea. And 
it is now the seat of Roman power, and the capital of the 
whole Orient, as Rome is of the Occident. 

66. Caesaraugusta Tarraconensis, 3 a town of Spain, was 
both founded and named by Caesar Augustus, excelling all 
the cities of Spain in the beauty of it's site and in its attrac- 

1 See Introd., p. 32. The two chapters, " De .Mensuris Agrorum " 
and " De Itineribus," together with three chapters of bk. xvi, " De 
Ponderibus," " De Mensuris," " De Signis," are given in Hultsch, 
Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae, Leipzig, 1886 (Scriptores Ro- 
mani in vol. ii). Hultsch finds (vol. ii, 34) that Isidore made use of 
Columella and a number of minor writers on these subjects. 

2 Isidore probably had in mind some derivation of Byzantium, which 
would explain his meaning here, but he gives no hint of what it was. 

3 Saragossa. 



250 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 ^ Q 

tions (deliciis), and more famous than all, and distinguished 
(Horens) for the graves of the sainted martyrs. 

67. The Africans under Hannibal occupied the coast of 
Spain and built Carthago Spartaria, which presently was 
captured and made a colony by the Romans, and gave its 
name also to the province. But now it has been destroyed 
and reduced to desolation by the Goths. 

69. Caesar Augustus built Emerita after he had taken Lusi- 
tania and certain islands of the Ocean, giving it a name from 
the fact that he placed his veteran soldiers there. For vet- 
erans, freed from service, are called emeriti. 

70. Olyssipona (Lisbon) was founded and named by 
Ulysses, and at this place, as historians say, the heavens are 
separated from the earth and the seas from the lands. 

71. Hispalis (Seville) Julius Caesar founded, and called 
it Julia Romula from his own name and the name of the city 
of Rome. It is called Hispalis from its situation, because it 
is placed on marshy ground, the stakes (pedis) being driven 
deep, that it might not slip because of its slippery and un- 
steady foundations. 

72. Gades is a town founded by the Carthaginians who also 
founded Carthago Spartaria. 

Chapter 4. On sacred buildings. 

8. Fanes (Fana) are so called from Fauns to whom the 
heathen blindness erected temples wherein those who sought 
for guidance might hear the responses of demons. 

9. Delubra, the name the ancients gave to temples having 
springs in which they washed themselves (diluebantur) before 
entering. . . . These are at the present time sanctuaries with 
sacred springs in which the regenerate faithful purify them- 
selves, and they were well called delubra with a sort of pro- 
phetic meaning ; for they are for the washing away of sins. 

Chapter 15. On land measurements. 

1. Measure is whatever limit is set in respect to weight, 
capacity, length, height and mind (animus). And so the 
ancients divided the circle of lands into parts, the parts into 



251] ON BUILDINGS AND FIELDS 25 1 

provinces, the provinces into regions, the regions into dis- 
tricts, the districts into territories, the territories into fields, 
the fields into centuries, the centuries into acres (jugera), 
the acres into climata [about sixty feet square], then the 
climata into actus [120x4 ft], perches, paces, grades 
(gradus), cubits, feet, palms, inches, (uncia), and fingers. 
For so clever were they. 



BOOK XVI 
ON STONES AND METALS 1 

ANALYSIS 

I. Kinds of earth (ch. i). 

II. Earthy substances made out of water (de glebis ex 
aqua 2 ) (ch. 2). 

III. Common stones (ch. 3). 

IV. The less common stones (ch. 4). 
V. Marbles (ch. 5). 

VI. Gems (chs. 6-15). 

1. Green gems (ch. 7). 

2. Red gems (ch. 8). 

3. Purple gems (ch. 9). 

4. White gems (ch. 10). 

5. Black gems (ch. 11). 

6. Parti-colored gems (ch. 12). 

7. Crystalline gems (ch. 13). 

8. Glowing gems (ch. 14). 

9. Gold-colored gems (ch. 15). 

1 Pliny's five 'books (xxxiii-xxxvii) on mineralogy in his Natural 
History are the chief source upon which later writers drew. An epi- 
tome of them, or rather, an epitome of an epitome, was made by Soli- 
nus in the third century. This underwent a further revision in the 
sixth century. Isidore is supposed to have used both the epitome and 
the original, as well as an unknown source, from which he drew the 
medical virtues of the precious stones. Cf. King, The Natural History, 
Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones (London, 1865), p. 6. 

2 Asphalt, alum, salt, soda, etc. 

252 [252 



253] 0N STONES AND METALS 253 

VII. Glass (ch. 16). 
VIII. Metals (chs. 17-24). 

1. Gold (ch. 18). 

2. Silver (ch. 19). 

3. Bronze (ch. 20). 

4. Iron (ch. 21). 

5. Lead (ch. 22). 

6. Tin (ch. 23). 

7. Amber (ch. 24). 
IX. Weights (ch. 25). 

X. Measurements (chs. 26, 27). 

Abbreviations for units of measurement (ch. 2y). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 4. On the less common stones. 

3. G agates (jet) was first found in Cilicia, thrown up by 
the water of the river Gagates. Whence it was named, al- 
though it is very abundant in Britain. It is black, flat, smooth, 
and burns when brought near to fire. Dishes cut out of it are 
not destructible. If burned it puts serpents to flight, betrays 
those who are possessed by demons, and reveals virginity. It 
is wonderful that it is set on fire by water and extinguished 
with oil. 

19. Amiantos (amianth) . . . resists all poisons, especially 
those of the magi. 

Chapter 7. On green gems. 

8. Certain believe that the jasper gives both attractiveness 
and safety to its wearers, but to believe this is a sign not of 
faith but of superstition. 

9. The topaz is of the green sort and it glitters with every 
color. It was found first in an island of Arabia in which 
Troglodyte pirates, worn out with hunger and storm, discov- 
ered it when they pulled the roots of herbs. This island was 
sought for afterward, and was at length found by seamen, 
being all covered with clouds. And on this account the place 



254 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [254 

and the gem received the name from cause. For ro7rd;«v 
in the Troglodyte language denotes seeking. 

12. Heliotropium x . . . receives the sun-light after the 
manner of a looking-glass, and reveals the eclipses of the 
sun, showing the moon passing under. In the case of this 
gem there is also a most manifest proof of the shamelessness 
of the magi, because they say its wearer is not visible if he 
takes an infusion of the plant heliotrope and in addition 
utters certain charms. 

Chapter 8. On red gems. 

1. . . . The magi assert that [coral] resists thunder-bolts, 
— if it is to be believed. 

Chapter 10. On white gems. 

4. Galactites (milk-stone) is milk-white, and being rubbed 
it gives a white fluid that tastes like milk, and being tied on 
nursing mothers it increases the flow of milk. If it is hung 
on the necks of children it is said to create saliva, and it is 
said to melt in the mouth and take away the memory. 

Chapter 13. On crystals. 

1. It is said that crystal glitters and is of a watery color 
because it is snow that has hardened into ice in the course of 
the years. ... It is produced in Asia and Cyprus, and es; 
pecially in the Alps of the north, where there is no hot sun 
even in summer. Therefore the ice itself is bared, and hard- 
ening through the years gives this appearance which is called 
crystal. This, being set opposite to the rays of the sun, so 
seizes upon its flame that it sets fire to dry fungi or leaves. 
Its use is to make cups, but it can endure nothing but what is 
cold. 

2. Adamas . . . Though this is an unconquerable despiser 
of the steel and of fire, yet it is softened by the fresh, warm 
blood of stags, and then is shattered by many blows of an 
iron instrument. 

3. It is said to reveal poisons as does amber (electron), to 
drive away useless fears, to resist evil arts. 

1 Striped jasper. 



255] 0A ~ ST0NES AND PETALS 255 

Chapter 14. On glowing gems. 

7. Dracontites is forcibly taken from the brain of a 
dragon, and unless it is torn from the living creature it has 
not the quality of a gem; whence magi cut it out of dragons 
while they are sleeping. For bold men explore the cave of 
the dragons, and scatter there medicated grains to hasten their 
sleep, and thus cut off their heads while they are sunk in 
sleep, and take out the gems. 

Chapter 15. On yellow gems. 

17. Glossoptera is like the human tongue whence it took its 
name. It is said to fall from heaven when the moon is in 
eclipse, and the magi attribute great power to it, for they 
think that to it the motions of the moon are due. 

21. There are also certain gems which the heathen use in 
certain superstitions. 

22. By the fragrance of the liparia, 1 they relate that all 
wild beasts are summoned. By the ananchitis 1 in divination 
by water they say the likenesses of demons are summoned. 
By the synochitis 1 they assert that the shades of those below 
that have been summoned forth, are held. 

23. Chenelites is the eye of the Indian tortoise, of a varied 
purple. By means of this magi pretend that the future is 
foretold, if it is put on the tongue. 

25. Hyaenia is a stone found in the eye of the hyena and 
they say that if it is placed under the tongue of a man he 
foretells the future. 

Chapter 20. On bronze. 

4. Corinthian bronze is a mixture of all metals, and it was 
first made by accident at Corinth, when the city was taken and 
burned. For when Hannibal had taken the city, he piled all 
the statues of bronze and gold and silver into one heap and 
burned them. 

Chapter 21. On iron. 

2. There is no body with elements so dense, so closely inter- 

1 Unknown. 



256 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 $6 

lacing and interwoven, as iron ; whence in it there is hardness 
and cold. 

Chapter 25. On weights. 

1. It is a delight to learn the manner of weights and meas- 
ures. For all corporeal substances, as it is written, from the 
highest even to the lowest, are ordered and shaped within the 
limits of measure, number, and weight. To all corporeal 
things nature has assigned weight. Its own weight regulates 
everything. 

2. Moses, who preceded all the philosophers of the nations 
in time, first told us of measures and numbers and weight in 
different passages in the Scripture. Phidon of Argos was 
the first to establish a system of weights in Greece. 

19. Uncia . . . And it is reckoned a lawful weight for this 
reason, that the number of its scruples measures the hours of 
the day and night, or because reckoned twelve times it makes 
a pound. 

20. Libra (pound) is made up of twelve ounces, and thence 
is counted a kind of perfect weight, because it is made up of 
as many ounces as a year is months. And it is called libra 
because it is libera (free) and embraces all the aforemen- 
tioned weights within itself. 

23. Centenarium is a weight of one hundred pounds. And 
this weight the Romans established because of the perfection 
of the number one hundred. 

Chapter 26. On measures. 

1. Measure is the limiting of something in amount or time. 
It has to do with either corporeal substance or time. It has 
to do with corporeal substance as, for example, the length 
or shortness of men, pieces of timber, and columns; even the 
sun has a measure proper to its circle, which geometricians 
dare to inquire into. It has to do with time as, for example, 
hours, days, years; whence we say that we measure the feet 
of the hours. 

2. But speaking in a limited sense, measure (mensura) is 
so named because by it fruits and grain are meted, that is, 



257] 0N ST0NES AND METALS 2 $7 

wet and dry measure, as modius (peck), artabo (three and 
half modi), tirna (pitcher), amphora (jar). 

10. Modius (peck) is so named because after its own mode 
it is perfect. It is a measure of forty-four pounds, that is, 
of twenty-two sextarii. The cause of this number is derived 
from this, that in the beginning God made twenty-two works. 
For on the first day he made seven, that is, matter in the 
rough, angels, light, the upper heavens, earth, water, and air. 
On the second day, the firmament alone. On the third day, 
four things: the seas, seeds, sowing, and plantings. On the 
fourth day, three things: the sun and moon and stars. On 
the fifth day, three: fishes, and creeping things of the water, 
and flying creatures. On the sixth day, four: wild beasts, 
flocks, creeping things of the earth, and man. And in all 
twenty-two kinds were made in the six days. And there are 
twenty-two generations from Adam to Jacob, from whose 
seed sprang all the people of Israel, and twenty-two books of 
the Old Testament as far as Esther, and twenty-two letters 
of the alphabet out of which the doctrine of the divine law is 
composed. According to these precedents a modius of twenty - 
two sextarii was established by Moses according to the meas- 
ure of the holy law, and although different nations in their 
ignorance add weight to this measure or detract from it, still 
among the Hebrews it is kept unchanged by divine ordinance. 

Chapter 27. Abbreviations for weights. 

1. The marks for weight are unknown to most and thence 
they cause readers to err. So let us add their shapes and 
characters as they were set down by the ancients. 1 

1 Twenty-one of these are named. 



BOOK XVII 
ON AGRICULTURE 

ANALYSIS 

I. Writers on rural affairs (ch. i). 
II. The cultivation of the fields (ch. 2). 
III. Grains (ch. 3). 
VI. Leguminous plants (ch. 4). 
V. Vines (ch. 5). 
VI. Trees (chs. 6-7). 

1. Species of trees (ch. 7). 
VII. Aromatic shrubs (ch. 8). 
VIII. Aromatic and common herbs (ch. 9) 
IX. Vegetables (chs. 10, 11). 



BOOK XVIII 
ON WAR AND AMUSEMENTS 

ANALYSIS 

I. War * (chs. 1-14). 

1. Kinds of war (ch. 1). 

2. Triumphs (ch. 2). 

1 The information on military matters contained here and in bk. ix 
wa9 drawn ultimately from the succession of Roman writers on mili- 
tary science. The chief of these were Frontinus, Hyginus, Vegetius. 
258 [258 



259] 0N WAR AND AMUSEMENTS 259 

3. Standards (ch. 3). 

4. Trumpets (ch 4). 

5. Armor (chs. 5-14). 

a. Swords (ch. 6). 

b. Spears (ch. 7). 

c. Arrows (ch. 8). 

d. Quivers (ch. 9). 

e. Slings (ch. 10). 

f. The battering ram (ch. 11). 

g. Shields (ch. 12). 

h. Coats of mail (ch. 13). 
i. Helmets (ch. 14). 
II. The law-court (de foro) (ch. 15). 

III. Spectacles 1 (chs. 16-59). 

1. Gymnastic contests (chs. 17-26). 

2. The circus (chs. 27-41). 

3. The theatre (chs. 42-51). 

4. The amphitheatre (chs. 52-58). 

5. Condemnation of spectacles (ch. 59). 

IV. Gambling (chs. 60-68). 
V. Ball-playing (ch. 69). 

EXTRACTS 

Chapter 16. On spectacles. 

1. Spectacles, as I think, is the general name given to 
pleasures which defile not of themselves, but through those 
things that take place there. 

3. The origin of the word (Indus) is of no consequence 
when the origin of the thing is idolatry. . . . On this account 
the stain of its origin must be regarded, lest one should re- 
gard as good what took its origin in evil. 

1 The title, De Spectaculis, and much of the material are drawn from 
Tertullian's De Spectaculis. See M. Klussman, Excerpta Tertullianea 
in Isidori H-ispalensis Etymologiis (Hamburg, 1892). 



260 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [ 2 6o 

Chapter 27. On the sports of the circus. 

I. The sports of the circus (ludi cir censes) were established 
on account of worship, and because of the honoring of the 
heathen gods. Whence those who view them seem to be fur- 
thering the worship of evil spirits. For horse-racing was in 
former times practiced by itself, and its ordinary practice at 
least was no guilt, but when this natural practice was included 
in the games, it was transferred to the worship of demons. 

Chapter 41. On the colors at the races. 1 

1. The same heathen have associated the colors worn by 
the horses with the elements: likening the red to the sun, 
that is, to fire; the white to air; the green to earth; the blue 
to the sea. Likewise they wished the red to run in summer 
because they are of a fiery color and all things are of a golden 
hue at that time; the white in winter because it is icy and 
everything is white; the green during the verdure of spring, 
because then the vine leaves are thickening. 

2. They also consecrated the red to Mars from whom the 
Romans are sprung, because the Roman standards are adorned 
with scarlet or because Mars delights in blood. The white 
[they consecrated] to western breezes and fine weather, the 
green to flowers and earth, the blue to the sea or air because 
they are of a caerulean color, the golden or saffron to fire 
and the sun, and the purple to Iris, which we call the bow, 
because Iris has many colors. 

3. And so while under this pretence they pollute themselves 
with the gods and the elements of this world, they are known 
to be certainly worshiping the same gods and elements. 
Whence you ought to notice, Christian, how many unclean 
gods they have around. Therefore the place which many 
spirits of Satan have seized shall be alien to you. For all 
that place the devil and his angels have filled. 

Chapter 45. On tragedians. 

1. Tragedians are they who sang in mournful verse the 

1 Compare Tertullian, De Spectaculis, chs. 6-9. 



2 6l] ON WAR AND AMUSEMENTS 2 6l 

ancient deeds and crimes of guilty kings, while the people 
looked on. 

Chapter 46. On comedians. 

1. Comedians are they who represented by song and gesture 
the doings of men in private life, and in their plays set forth 
the defilement of maidens and the love affairs of harlots. 

Chapter 59. On the execration of these. 

1. These spectacles of cruelty and this gazing upon vanities 
were established not only by the fault of men but by the 
command of demons. Wherefore a Christian ought to have 
nothing to do with the madness of the circus, with the shame- 
lessness of the theatre, with the cruelty of the amphitheatre, 
with the atrocity of the arena, with the luxury of the ludus* 
For he denies God who ventures on such things, becoming 1 
violator of the Christian faith — he who seeks afresh that 
which he long before renounced in baptism, that is, the devil, 
his parades and his works. 



BOOK XIX 
ON SHIPS, BUILDINGS, AND GARMENTS x 

ANALYSIS 

I. Ships 2 (chs. 1-6). 

1. Seamen (ch. 1, 3-7). 

2. Kinds of ships (ch. 1, 8-27). 

3. Parts of ships (ch. 2). 

4. Sails (ch. 3). 

1 At this point in his work Isidore turns from the ' sciences ' to the 
useful arts. 

2 For a similar subject and treatment, compare De Geneve Navi- 
giorum, in Nonius Marcellus's encyclopedia. See p. 43. 



262 ISIDORE OF SEVILLE [262 

5. Ropes (ch. 4). 

6. Nets (ch. 5). 

II. Furnaces of smiths (ch. 6). 
1. Tools of smiths (ch. 7). 
III. Buildings (chs. 8-18). 

1. Construction (ch. 10). 

2. Adornment (chs. 11- 17). 

3. Tools for building (ch. 18). 
IV. Workers in wood (ch. 19). 

V. Garments (chs. 20-29). 

1. Weaving (ch. 20). 

2. The dress of a priest under the law (ch. 21). 

3. The names of other articles of clothing (ch. 22). 

4. Peculiar costumes of certain peoples (ch. 23). 

5. Men's garments (ch. 24). 

6. Women's garments (ch. 25). 

7. Bedding, tablecloths, and so forth (ch. 26). 

8. Wools (ch. 27). 

9. Colors of garments (ch. 28). 

10. Instruments for making cloth (ch. 29). 
VI. Ornaments (chs. 30-32). 

1. Head ornaments for women (ch. 31). 

2. Rings (ch. 32). 
VII. Girdles (ch. 33). 

VIII. Footwear (ch. 34). 



BOOK XX 

ON PROVISIONS AND UTENSILS OF THE HOUSE- 
HOLD AND THE FIELDS 

ANALYSIS 

I. Tables (ch. i). 
II. Food (ch. 2). 
Ill Drink (ch. 3). 
IV. Dishes. 

i. For food (ch. 4). 

2. For drink (ch. 5). 

3. For wine and water (ch. 6). 

4. For oil (ch. 7). 

V. Cooking utensils (ch. 8). 
VI. Receptacles (ch. 9). 
VII. Lamps (ch. 10). 
VIII. Beds and seats (ch. 11). 
IX. Vehicles (ch. 12). 
X. Other utensils (ch. 13). 
XI. Tools for the country (ch. 14). 
XII. Tools for the garden (ch. 15). 
XIII. Horse trappings (ch. 16). 

263] 263 



APPENDIX I 



Further light on Isidore's conception of the earth can 
be gained by noticing his use of the word terra in the fol- 
lowing passage, and comparing the passage with that from 
Hyginus on which it is based. 



Isidore. 

Nunc terrae positionem de- 
finiemus et mare quibus locis 
interfusum videatur, ordine 
exponemus. 

Terra, ut testatur Hyginus, 
mundi media regione collo- 
cata, omnibus partibus coeli 
aequali dissidens intervallo 
centrum obtinet. 

Oceanus autem regione cir- 
cumductionis spherae pro- 
fusus prope totius orbis alluit 
fines. Itaque et siderum 
signa occidentia in eum ca- 
dere existimantur. 



Regio autem terrae dividi- 
tur trifariam e quibus una 
pars Europa, altera Asia, ter- 
tia Africa vocatur. Europam 
igitur ab Africa dividit mare 
ab extremis oceani finibus, et 
264 



Hyginus. 



Terra mundi media regione 
collocata, omnibus partibus 
aequali dissidens intervallo, 
centrum obtinet sphaerae. 
Hanc mediam dividit axis in 
dimensione totius terrae. 

Oceanus autem regione cir- 
cumductionis spherae pro- 
fusus, prope totius orbis al- 
luit fines. Itaque et signa oc- 
cidentia in eum decidere ex- 
istimantur. Sic igitur et ter- 
ras contineri poterimus ex- 
planare. Nam quaecumque 
regio est quae inter Arcticum 
et Aestivum finem collocata 
est, ea dividitur trifariam e 
quibus una pars, Europa; al- 
tera, Asia; tertia, Africa vo- 
catur. Europam igitur ab 
[264 



265] 



APPENDIX 



265 



Africa dividit mare ab ex- 
tremis Oceani finibus, et Her- 
culi columnis. Asiam vero 
et Libyam cum Aegypto dis- 
terminat os Nili fluminis quod 
Canopicon appellator. Asiam 
ab Europa Tanais dividit bi- 
fariam se conjiciens in palu- 
dem quae Maeotis appellator. 
(Hygini Poeticon Astron., 
Mythographi Latini, Thomas 
Muncherus.Amsterdam, 1681, 
vol. i, p. 353.) 



Herculi columnis. Asiam 
autem et Libyam cum Ae- 
gypto disterminat ostium Nili 
fluvii, quod Canopicon appel- 
lator. Asiam ab Europa 
Tanais dividit bifariam se 
conjiciens in paludem, quae 
Maeotis appellator. Asia 
autem, ut ait beatissimus Au- 
gustinus, a meridie per ori- 
entem usque ad septentri- 
onem pervenit. Europa vero 
a septentrione usque ad occi- 
dentem, atque inde Africa ab 
occidente usque ad meridiem. 
Unde videntur orbem di- 
midium duae tenere, Europa 
et Africa. Alium vero di- 
midium sola Asia. Sed ideo 
illae duae partes factae sunt. 
quia inter utramque ab Oce- 
ano ingreditur, quidquid aqu- 
arum terras influit, et hoc 
mare Magnum nobis facit. 
Totius autem terrae mensu- 
ram geometrae centum octo- 
ginta millium stadiorum aes- 
timaverunt. (De Natura 
Rerum, ch. 48.) 

In the passage from Hyginus, terra in the singular is the 
spherical earth occupying the centre of the sphere formed 
by the universe. The ocean is on the surface of this 
spherical earth, and it washes " the limits of the circle of 
lands '". For this reason the heavenly bodies " are [popu- 
larly] supposed to set in it." Hyginus then turns to the dry 
land {terras), and describes the land surface "between the 



266 APPENDIX [ 2 66 

boundaries of the Arctic and torrid zones " as divided into 
three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

In Isidore terra means in the first instance, dry land, in 
the second — if he realized the meaning of Hyginus — the 
sphere ; in the third, the dry land ; in the fourth, the sphere. 
There is no evidence that Isidore was conscious of having 
made these transitions. He entirely omits the sentence in 
which Hyginus passes from the subject of the spherical 
earth to that of the lands. It is clear that Isidore has 
fallen into the same confusion here as in the passage quoted 
on p. 51; he uses the terminology of the spherical earth, 
while having no conception of anything but the flat earth. 1 

The difficulty offered by the word sphera in the passage 
quoted above from Isidore, is not insuperable, since it is 
clear from the following passage that he was not very 
definite in his notion of what a sphere was. A sphere and 
a circle apparently meant about the same thing to him. 

Cujus perfectionem spherae vel circuli multis argumenta- 
tionibus tractans, rationabile Plato Fabricatoris mundi insinuat 
opus. Primo, quod ex una linea constat. Secundo, quod sine 
initio est et sine fine. Tertio, quod a puncto efficitur. Denuo, 
quod motum ex se habeat. Deinde quod careat indicio angu- 
lorum, et quod in se ceteras figuras omnes includat, et quod 
motum inerrabilem habeat, siquidem sex alii motus errabiles 
sunt, ante, a tergo, dextra, laevaque, sursum, deorsum. Post- 
remo, et quod necessitate efficiatur, ut haec linea ultra cir- 
culum duci non possit. D. N. R., 12, 5. 

1 For passages illustrating Isidore's cosmology, see Etym., 2, 24, 2 ; 
3, 52, 1 ; 3, 47; 9, 2, 133; 11, 3, 24; 13, 1, 1. See also pp. 50-58 and 
notes. 



APPENDIX II 
Subdivisions of Philosophy 

Philosophy was regarded by Isidore as a comprehensive 
term embracing all knowledge. He gives its subdivisions 
as follows: 







Arithmetica 




Naturalis 


Geometria 




or 


Musica 




Physica 


Astronomia 
Prudentia 




Moralis 


Justitia 


Philosophia 


or 


Fortitudo 




Ethica 


Temperantia 




Rationalis 


Dialectica 




or 


Logica 




Logica 





That Isidore felt the need of an adjustment of this plan 
to the Christian scheme of things is to be perceived in the 
statement with which he accompanies it, that the Scriptures 
are made up of the three kinds of philosophy, natural, 
moral, and rational; and in the further statement that 
Christian scholars asserted the claims of Christian doc- 
trine (theorica) to take the place of rational or logical 
philosophy. 1 



1 2, 24, 3-8. See pp. 73-74, 116-119. 



267] 



267 



268 
II. 



APPENDIX 

i 

Naturalis 

Inspectiva Doctrinalis 
Divinalis 



[268 



Arithmetica 
Geometria 
Musica 
Astronomia 



Philosophia x 



III. 



Moralis 




Actualis Dispensat 


iva 


Civilis 






Arithmetica 




Geometria 




Musica 


Physica 


Astronomia 


or 


Astrologia 


Naturalis 


Mechanica 




Medicina 


Philosophia 2 Logica or 


Dialectica 


Rationalis 


Rhetorica 




Prudentia 


Ethica or 


Justitia 


Moralis 


Fortitudo 




Temperantia 



In connection with this outline also an attempt at ad- 
justment is made. Christian doctrine is placed, somewhat 



1 2, 24, 10-16. 



2 Diff., 2, 39. 



269] APPENDIX 269 

inappropriately, under the head of ethical philosophy: 
" Wisdom (prudentia) is the recognition of the true faith 
and the knowledge of the Scriptures, in which one must 
have regard for the triple method of interpretation. The 
first is that by which certain things are taken literally with- 
out any figure, as the Ten Commandments; the second is 
that by which certain things in the Scriptures are taken in 
a double sense, both in the definite historic meaning and 
in accordance with the understanding of figures, as in 
regard to Sara and Hagar; first, because they existed in 
reality, second, because the two Testaments are figuratively 
denoted by them. The third kind is that which is taken in 
a spiritual sense only,, as the Song of Songs. For if it is 
understood according to the sound of the words and their 
literal force, the result is bodily wantonness rather than the 
excellence of the inner meaning. After the definition of 
wisdom let us now give the parts of justice (justitia), of 
which the first is to fear God, to venerate religion, to honor 
parents, to love the fatherland, to help all, to harm none, 
to embrace the bonds of brotherly love, to face the dangers 
of others, to bring aid to the wretched, to repay a good 
turn, to observe equity in judgments." (Diff^ 2, 39.) 



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VITA 

The writer of this thesis was born in Prince Edward 
Island, Canada. He attended Dalhousie College, from 
which he graduated in 1894 with high honors in the 
Classics. He entered Harvard University in 1895, an d 
received the degree of A. B. in 1896, and A. M. in 1897. 
From 1898 to 1908 he was Instructor, Assistant Professor 
and Professor of Latin at Colorado College, and from 
1908 to 191 1 Professor of History at the same institution. 
He spent the years 1908-9 and 1911-12 in the school of 
Political Science of Columbia University. He has taken 
courses with Professors Burgess, Dunning, Osgood, Rob- 
inson, Shot well, and Sloane of Columbia. He is thirty- 
eight years old. 

275 






AN ENCYCLOPEDIST OF THE 
DARK AGES 

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE 



In saeculorum fine doctissimus 

(Ex concilio Toletano viii, cap. 2) 



BY 



ERNEST BREHAUT, A. M. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
in Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1912 



c ^£ZiA 



LfiJa'13 



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